Apple plus Twitter

“What happens when two super-hyped tech companies collide in the rumor mill?” asked Ian Paul in PC World. “You get a Tweetintosh”—or unconfirmed reports that Mac maker Apple is in talks to buy the hottest Internet property of the moment, microblogging site Twitter. If you believe the rumors, Apple could pay as much as $700 million to get a deal in place in time for its big June developers’ conference.

One “normally reliable source” insists the negotiations are real, said Michael Arrington in TechCrunch, although other sources “claim to know nothing about any Apple negotiations.” Twitter CEO Evan Williams has already shot down Google, so let’s hope Twitter means it when it says it isn't ready to sell at any price. "The best thing for the Internet" is for Twitter to spread its wings a little longer and see what it can do.

It's certainly believable that tech giants sitting on mountains of cash would want to buy Twitter, said Brian X. Chen in Wired. What strains credulity is that a 3-year-old start-up that is "undeniably the hottest social-networking service this year" would even consider cashing out just when it's "gaining serious momentum." Sorry, folks, Twitter has "no incentive" to sell. The rumor is false.

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