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Facebook’s attempts to buy microblogging platform Twitter were unsuccessful, according to BusinessWeek. In an interview with Spencer Ante, Peter Thiel explained that Facebook is still focused on growth. This was the first public confirmation of Facebook’s intention to buying Twitter and the failure of the takeover has a simple explanation: the two already famous social networks could not agree on the price.

The intent was to close the deal using Facebook’s stock – but since Facebook is a privately-held company it is pretty difficult to determine the value of this stock. In 2007 when Microsoft bought preferred stock in the company, the value of Facebook was estimated at $15 billion. But recent market developments made the valuation of most private tech startups fall along with stock markets.

Facebook’s intention was to acquire Twitter for $500 million – most in Facebook stock. According to BusinessWeek, Twitter liked the idea but balked when Facebook said its stock was worth approximately $9 billion. Apparently Facebook is letting its employees sell stock on the secondary market at company valuations ranging from $2 billion to $4 billion. Facebook’s financial value is still under debate.

Who knows, maybe Twitter would have agreed with the second proposal: $100 million in cash and the rest in stock if the Facebook stock received was valued at the price listed on the secondary market – but Facebook did not agree with this condition. Thus Facebook missed the opportunity to close a deal that had the potential to boost its market value a few points up.

Twitter is gaining a lot of momentum: it already has 6 million users, but sadly it doesn’t generate any revenue for the company, despite its grown popularity. Facebook is losing money too and the company doesn’t want to alienate users by increasing the number of ads in the network. With the twitter deal off the table, Facebook will now have to focus on other acquisitions. Let’s see where Facebook will land next, shall we? Any ideas?