A report by The New York Times indicates that Apple could make a strategic investment in Twitter. Citing ” people briefed on the matter,” it adds that Apple considered investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the social media company. Negotiations have stopped for now but the companies continue to work together on integrating Twitter features into Apple’s products.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently recognized the value of social media. “Apple doesn’t have to own a social network. But does Apple need to be social? Yes,” he recently said.
Apple’s own music-centric service Ping has not caught on with users. Rumours even suggest that it will be removed from the next major version of iTunes. Competitors meanwhile have been making their own inroads in the area. Microsoft owns a small claim in Facebook and Google has launched its own service, Google+.
Apple’s deal is based on Twitter being worth more than US$10 billion. A year ago, Twitter was valued at US$8.4 billion.
Update: A separate report by The Wall Street Journal suggests that rather than discussions taking place in “recent months.” they actually took place “more than a year ago.” It adds that no further discussions have taken place since.
Read more: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal