I don't want to sell Twitter, says Biz Stone

When you're co-founder of one of the hottest companies on the Internet dealing with acquisition rumors is a constant part of the job, but on Thursday Twitter's Biz Stone sought to put an end to the persistent talk that he wants to sell the company.

"Twitter is not interested in being acquired by a bigger company, we want to build an impressive company on our own and we believe that we can," Stone said to an audience of Twitter users at an event in Tokyo on Thursday evening.

His statement, after being translated into Japanese, drew a few cheers and claps from the audience, which was made up of many of Twitter's most enthusiastic users in Japan. The event was being held to mark the first visit to the country by Stone and the launch of a new mobile site.

Twitter remains a private company and so far has shown little interest in seeking funds from the stock market, despite its inability to generate any significant revenue. The company was recently reported to be near a new round of financing from a group of investors that valued the micro-blogging service at around US$1 billion.