Is Apple buying Twitter for $700 million?

By Davey Winder
Wednesday, 06 May 2009 02:46

Market

Twitter is the hottest Internet social networking property right now. Apple has a ton of spare cash. So are the rumours true, can Apple really be about to buy Twitter for US $700 million?

Whether it is a magistrate quitting after posting reports from court, celebrities getting their accounts hacked, or even Governments considering making lessons in how to use it compulsory for school kids, Twitter is hardly ever out of the news.

Not surprisingly there are also stories cropping up regarding the possible sale of the social network micro-blogging service. Most recently it was Google in the acquisition spotlight but that has proved to be just hot air.

So are the fast breaking rumours of an Apple interest in buying Twitter also nothing more than hot air and hyperbole? Not according to TechCrunch which says that according to a normally reliable source "Apple is in late stage negotiations to buy Twitter and is hoping to announce it at WWDC in June."

That same source also put the purchase price at some $700 million in cash. A lot of money given the current economic climate, but then Twitter does have more than 25 million members and it is growing at a truly amazing weekly rate.

Some, such as Wired magazine, don't think that $700 million is enough. "There’s just no incentive for Twitter to cash out when it’s gaining serious momentum and there are signs the IPO market is coming back and the recession is easing" it says.

Still, other sources are also sticking heads above parapets, with claims that a senior-level rectruitee at Apple has said, independently of the TechCrunch report, that Apple is having "serious negotiations" with Twitter in order to get a deal sorted before the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in June.

Personally I am not that convinced of how Apple and Twitter fit together on a business level, unless someone at Apple has worked out a strategy to monetise Twitter and get a return on those millions of members and high-profile press pages via advertising.