No Apple Twitter buy

Contrary to rumors, Apple has expressed no serious interest in buying Twitter, says All Things Digital's Kara Swisher. Some in the industry are said to be claiming that Apple is already in "late-stage negotiations" to buy Twitter, whose microblogging service has skyrocketed in popularity following adoption by celebrities like Stephen Fry, Lily Allen and Shaquille O'Neal. Apple has so far only "said hello" to Twitter though, according to Swisher.

The company is in fact said to be just one of many major corporations considering absorbing Twitter, including Microsoft, which has had its business development team forming an analysis. Fox and MySpace owner News Corp. has expressed an interest, and Google mergers and acquisitions head David Lawee is said to have called Twitter a number of times. The latter could be part of the inspiration behind rumors of other serious negotiations.

Google may now be wary of such an acquisition however, as the company is said to be under scrutiny for antitrust activities due to the close ties of its board of directors with Apple, and confluent interests. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a prominent member of the Apple directorate, and Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson sits on both companies' boards. Technology such as YouTube is heavily integrated into Apple's products.

by MacNN Staff