Is Google going to buy Twitter, or not? That’s what social networkers are tweeting, commenting and otherwise buzzing about this Friday.
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Twitter is a service that lets users stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one question: What are you doing? It’s a real-time messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices, including PCs and smartphones. And Facebook would reportedly love to add it to its social-networking services.
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In February, Google’s debut on Twitter launched speculation that the search giant might be looking to acquire the micro-blogging service. Those rumors died down, only to be rekindled again by TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington, who cited two separate people close to the negotiations saying Google is in late-stage negotiations to acquire Twitter.
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Facebook Rejected
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Twitter has already rejected an all-stock acquisition offer from Facebook. Despite a recently inked ExecTweets deal with Microsoft, Twitter isn’t reporting any revenue yet. The two-year-old company is still building its user base, yet the darling of Silicon Valley has reportedly been valued at $500 million.
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Twitter plans to become a successful, revenue-generating company that attracts world-class talent with an inspiring culture and attitude toward doing business. But contradictory news reports suggest Google is not in late-stage talks to acquire Twitter after all. Rather, it seems the two companies entered product-related discussions around real-time search in recent weeks.
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Still, Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said Twitter would make a smart acquisition for either Google or Microsoft. Few Internet companies rise to this level of visibility with such an interesting range of potential future options, he said. Indisputably, Twitter is the hottest company around right now — hotter than Facebook, though with a tiny fraction of the social network’s users.
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There are ways in which Twitter has already emerged as a more potentially successful marketing and CRM tool than…