Apple 'In Talks' To Buy Twitter For £460m

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Rumours are spreading that Apple is in talks to buy social networking website Twitter.

The rumours, which report the proposed deal at £460m ($700m), broke on two widely-read technology blogs, TechCrunch and ValleyWag.

Both sites report a "realiable source" and imply the rumour is more credible than others that have spread about the site in recent months.

"Apple is in late stage negotiations to buy Twitter and is hoping to announce it at (their annual World Wide Developers' Conference) in June," the TechCrunch source is quoted as saying.

Twitter has grown in popularity at a phenomenal rate in the past few months and now has over 25 million users.

A source close to the company has even claimed the site's audience is growing by as much as 40% a week, after being mentioned on the popular Oprah Winfrey talk show.

The new rumours, if true, are significant as Twitter has strongly resisted interest from a number of other companies.

Late last year, Facebook failed to close a deal for the website after offering around £330m ($500m) of its stock.

Around a month ago, Google were also rumoured to be in talks to buy the site, but no deal materialised.

But despite the rumours, TechCrunch's Mike Arrington has written on his blog that it is likely Twitter will resist selling - regardless of the price offered.

He wrote: "I'd like to see Twitter spread its wings a little longer and see what it can become.

"It'll be hard to do that as a subsidiary of Google, Apple, or anyone else for that matter.

"If Twitter wants to stay independent that's just fine with me."


Source:SkyNews