Apple Inc. (AAPL) Reportedly Considered Investing “Hundreds of Millions” in Twitter

Twitter iPhone

Twitter iPhone

Early Saturday, NYTimes reported that Apple Inc. (AAPL) was looking to invest “hundreds of millions” in microblogging company, Twitter. The report assumes that either Apple is investing or purcahsing a large stake in the company and that the two companies have been in talks in recent months over such a matter.

Apple has considered an investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars, one that could value Twitter at more than $10 billion, up from an $8.4 billion valuation last year, these people said. They declined to be named because the discussions were private.

There is no guarantee that the two companies, which are not in negotiations at the moment, will come to an agreement. But the earlier talks are a sign that they may form a stronger partnership amid intensifying competition from the likes of Google and Facebook.

However, The Wall Street Journal also came out and negated the claims made in the NYTime report, leading speculators to remain skeptical about such a deal between the two companies. Apple has been dabbling with social media in recent years, pushing for its own Ping network in iTunes, which failed to attract users. Since then, the Cupertino company has heavily incorporated Twitter into both iOS and OS X.

Apple has mixed in Twitter under the share sheets in multiple applications, including Safari on all of its devices and even Notification Center in iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion. Although Facebook will also be a part of the operating systems soon, Twitter remains tightly integrated.

It is unclear whether Apple still in talks with Twitter or if the two companies even had contact with each other. However, such a deal involving “hundreds of millions” might not justify the profitability Cupertino based company could possibly extract.

{via MacRumors}

Advertisement

Leave a Reply