Here we go again. More rumors of Twitter being acquired by some company. This time it’s not Google, Microsoft, or Facebook. It’s Apple. I’m taking this (as should everyone else) with a baseball-sized chunk of salt at this point, but when these rumors start to swirl, we can’t just ignore them entirely.
So here’s what the rumors are based on. Owen Thomas of Valleywag writes:
A source who’s plugged into the Valley’s deal scene and has been recruited by Apple for a senior position says Apple and Twitter are in serious negotiations, with the goal of unveiling a deal by June 8, when Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference launches in San Jose.
Twitter turned down a $500 million offer in cash and stock from Facebook, in part because Twitter’s investors couldn’t agree on whether Facebook’s stock was worth as much as Facebook said it was. But Apple could easily pay cash. A source familiar with the thinking of Twitter’s board says the company would be hard-pressed to refuse an all-cash offer in the range of $700 million.
In addition, Mike Arrington at TechCrunch writes:
Today, though, rumors popped up that Apple may be looking to buy Twitter. “Apple is in late stage negotiations to buy Twitter and is hoping to announce it at WWDC in June,” said a normally reliable source this evening, adding that the purchase price would be $700 million in cash. The trouble is we’ve checked with other sources who claim to know nothing about any Apple negotiations. If these discussions are happening, Twitter is keeping them very quiet indeed. We would have passed on reporting this rumor at all, but other press is now picking it up.
There you have it. That’s it. Twitter is saying nothing of such a deal. Twitter has said repeatedly that it is not looking to sell. You never know when it’s going to actually happen, but it’s one of those things that you just have to wait and see before you can really believe it.
