Rumor: Google Inc To Buy 40% Stake In EBay Inc At $68/Share

UPDATES:

• 11:50 am: Google Declines Comment on Rumored Stake in Ebay
• 11:49 am: Analysts React To Google-eBay $85 Billion Merger Rumor
• 11:23 am: Ebay Declines Comment on Rumor of Potential Stake by Google
• 11:20 am: Benzinga has reached out to eBay and Google and is currently waiting for a response. 

Original post:

EBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) spiked early Friday on a rumor that Google is poised to announce acquiring a 40 percent stake in the online auction concern.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) could acquire the stake in a deal valued at $85 billion, or $68 a share, according to an unnamed source. 

A lot of buzz about the rumor is surfacing on the web, including chatter on StockTwits.

Activist investor Carl Icahn reportedly pushed for the deal as a means to enable Google to compete more effectively with Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alibaba.

Tweeters citing a "source," said eBay delayed the deal until Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) offered details of its Apple Pay system related to the latest iPhone.

EBay traded recently at $51.42 a share, up 1.5 percent.