Apple buying Twitter? Come on, guys…

The rumor mill just went off the rails. Now TechCrunch is reporting that Apple may be in talks to buy Twitter. Does this make any sense to anyone? Apple’s been making laser like acquisitions and hires targetting their direct weaknesses and things that will give them a greater advantage with their core strengths. For example buying PA Semi and then hiring a bunch of rockstar chip guys? See that makes sense.

Buying Twitter? What possible reason could they have for that? It makes no sense. Is Apple even on Twitter? Not that I know of… So, you know, other than the fact that they just did a very loving, slightly insane profile of Twitter, I mean, “Twitter, Triumph of Humanity”? Triumph of Humanity?? Still, one crazy article does not a $700 million merger make.

On the other hand, what would Twitter get out of this? A company explicitly looking to stay independent while it goes on a journey of self (and business model) discovery? It made much more sense to tie the knot with Google who had been rumored to be looking to buy – but Google was rumored to have been rebuffed. And there you could easily see how it made at least some sense for both companies. Personally, I think that would have been a big mistake. Google is where startups go to die. And real time search, the current darling of social media elite (and no one else) would never have made sense integrated with the general Google search.

I think Twitter and its investors have the right idea. Stay independent. Figure out what the right business model is and become a profitable company with a real identity before thinking about being acquired (or maybe then staying independent foreva). Right now, they’re making so many changes, pissing off these people and those people and sort of just trying to find themselves. Right now it’s kinda like they’re on their summer trip, back packing through Europe, experimenting with stuff and embarrassing themselves, but hopefully when they come back they’ll have a firmer sense of who they are. That was pretty much the dumbest thing I’ve ever written on this blog, but hey, I’m going with it.

poyla

"Also, when i went backpacking through europe one summer i discovered that i actually did like seafood and that im pretty good at meeting women."

Well, at least it's trumped by the dumbest comment ever on this blog!

Notice no pictures ever came of that trip. "My camera was stolen, my camera was stolen". yeah right.
howie

Here's what i think happened. Apple's got a bit of a hard-on for twitter and arranged some high level meetings on thoughts about how to integrate the service with apples existing products. Someone got wind of the meetings and maybe overheard the word "integrate" and the rumors went flying.

Also, when i went backpacking through europe one summer i discovered that i actually did like seafood and that im pretty good at meeting women.

it was a good trip.

#comments