Valve says no to Google buy-out rumour

By now everybody on the planet has probably seen the rumour that was originally spread by The Inquirer that internet giant Google was set to buy out Half-Life developer Valve, but both companies have now refuted the claim and said it is purely a piece of fiction.

The Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian originally set the rumour-mill going, claiming that 'well placed sources' had confirmed with him that Google was ready to buy-out Valve 'at any second'. Predictably, the internets were set aflame with panic and flamewars, with The Inquirer standing by the story as the comments flooded in.

However, it now turns out that some even better placed sources at both companies have dismissed the idea as a work of pure fantasy.

NoFrag quickly contacted Valve for an official comment and heard back from both Valve founders Gabe Newell and Doug Lombardi who said flatly that there was absolutely no truth to the story.

"No truth. Fabrication," said Gabe, simply.

"It's nothing more than rumor. Valve is focused on making Left 4 Dead a great product and supporting folks like Crytek and Ubisoft who are bringing great games to Steam this year," confirmed Doug.

Google meanwhile has also dismissed the idea, telling Eurogamer that the story was nothing more than rumour and speculation.

That's not to say that the idea didn't have merit of course - Valve has previously said that it didn't want to continue pushing Steam as the primary saviour of PC gaming, while Google is obviously keen to control as much of the market as possible. A match between the two would have been sensible on the surface, but there's no substance to it unfortunately.

Would you mind Valve and Google merging, or do you think it's a sign of the End of Days? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

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