Apple set to buy Twitter for £460m?

Apple and Twitter are reportedly in serious negotiations over a possible $700 million sale of the social networking site, with the deal set to be announced in June if successful.

Of course this is all based on speculation from a source close to ValleyWag, which states that he's been recruited by Apple and says the two are locked in talks over a potential sale.

The figure of $700 million (around £460m) comes after Twitter turned down $500 million plus shares from Facebook in the past, but apparently a source close to Twitter says Apple's offer would be hard to turn down.

The question would obviously remain, no matter who buys the company, how would it make any money? Twitter still has to define a business model that would generate the significant income a 6 million user base and over 1,300 per cent growth should be bringing.

The only likely option would be for Apple to integrate the Twitter model into its iPhone / Mac services... although given the plethora of options available for both those models already, it's hardly like it would be bringing a huge new fan base to those machines.

Too much cash

But on the other hand, given Apple has a reported $30 billion in cash these days, buying Twitter would be nothing more than small change for the company really, so in reality Jobs could just buy it in order to have Twitter stickers put all over Apple HQ's walls.

This isn't the only company Apple's linked with at the moment, as it apparently also has videogame manufacturer EA in its sights according to rumours.

Given the amount of chat we're hearing from sources about Apple's sudden interest in using the iPhone as a gaming platform, this isn't outside the realms of reality, especially as the likelihood is that games will soon be delivered in the same manner as iTunes provides music and TV shows at the moment.