Rumors of Google Talks for Twitter Persist

Looks like there’s some rumblings about Google buying Twitter. I’ve been hearing about this on my Twitter account for a few days now:

From: http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/rumors-of-google-talks-for-twitter-persist/

It seems that rumors that Google is in talks to buy Twitter just won’t go away.

Chatter that the search giant and the microblogging start-up were holding deal talks resurfaced last week, when TechCrunch, citing a rumor sourced from two separate people close to the negotiations, reported that Google was in late stage negotiations to acquire Twitter.

The news sent a ripple through the blogoshere. All Things Digital responded to the news with a report of its own, saying the TechCunch story “it isn’t accurate in any way.”

For its part, Twitter remained vague. In a post titled “Sometimes We Talk,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote Friday: “It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussion with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects.”

But, he added: “Our goal is to build a profitable, independent company and we’re just getting started.”

During the last round of speculation about such a deal, Google’s chief, Eric Schmidt, sounded a fairly noncommittal note on the subject.

When asked about a possible deal for the microblogger in an interview with Charlie Rose in March, Mr. Schmidt said: “We’re unlikely to buy anything in the short term, partly because I think prices are still high.”

Still, analysts told The San Jose Mercury News that the TechCrunch report was plausible given Google’s history. Google previously acquired PyraLabs, which was founded by Evan Williams, who is a co-founder of Twitter, the newspaper noted.

However, other industry observers suggested that such “talks” were just the normal course of things in Silicon Valley, and didn’t necessarily mean anything serious.

“They’ll never not be talking. It’s neither in Twitter nor Google’s interest to not be talking,” David Hornik, a Silicon valley venture capitalist told CNet News.com.

CNet also noted that Twitter’s V.C. backers, in particular Benchmark Capital, are known as long-term investors. They are unlikely to go for a quick exit–even for $1 billion figure that’s been bandied around, the publication said.

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