So now it’s Apple, eh? This is rich.
Valleywag has floated the rumor that Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) is in “serious negotiations” to buy Twitter for as much as $700 million, with the hope of announcing the deal June 8 at its Worldwide Developers Conference.
This latest comes after the failed Facebook acquisition, the most likely inaccurate (or at the very least overstated) TechCrunch [story](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/02/sources-google-in-late-stage-talks-to-buy-twitter/) that Google was getting close to sealing the deal, and persistent rumors that Microsoft, News Corp. and other deep-pocketed companies are considering adding the microblogging phenom to their portfolios.
These are best to be ignored. But we can’t do that now, can we? There is no hotter company in the tech world than Twitter, and none with a more fiercely loyal following than Apple. The idea of these two companies marrying — when a mere mention of either in a headline is enough to guarantee a healthy interest in the story, no matter how specious or trumped-up the reporting — is bound to create a feeding frenzy for the tech press.
On its face, the idea of an Apple-Twitter tie-up seems a crude match. Departing Valleywag editor Owen Thomas points this out in his post, declaring, “If Apple buys Twitter, it won’t be about making money. It will be about making a statement.”
That statement, presumably, would be about Apple’s overture toward the open culture of the Web, about bringing glasnost to Cupertino, or something.
Imagine Apple’s communications department, hardly renowned for its forthcoming spirit, embracing Twitter to engage with the company’s fans and media — and the great, great many who belong to both camps. To drop cryptic clues about upcoming product releases? Maybe. To reassure us that when the levees break, the banks fail and the oceans boil, it’s okay, because there’s an app for that? Perhaps.
But really, whether it makes sense or not, the idea is enough to capture our imagination. With entire sites built on unearthing and spreading rumors about what Apple is up to, and media outlets very much in the mainstream continuing with their bizarre fascination with Twitter, the story of their union is, as Kara Swisher puts it, a “Techmeme dream-ticket.”
Madness.
