Apple Considers Plan to Buy Twitter?

CUPERTINO, Calif. — After spurning a $500 million offer from Facebook last year, hot-topic microblogging website Twitter may have another offer, this time from the empire of Steve Jobs.

The rumor meme already has its own handle, "Twapple," and was first mentioned over at New York gossip blog Gawker.com and has since gained some traction online.

What would such a deal look like, and how might it affect the adult industry? According to Gawker's Owen Thomas, the mighty iPhone would be the key to the deal.

"What does Twitter, an adorable but unprofitable startup, have to do with a hardware company like Apple? The iPhone is the obvious driver of the deal," he said.

Presumably, Apple would want to formally incorporate Twitter functionality into the iPhone, which already has several Twitter apps available for it. The importance to the adult industry relates to Twitter's sheer popularity among industry members.

For perspective, the website PornStarTweet.com aggregates Twitter activity from performers across the industry. There's a lot of it.

Peter Housley runs PornStarTweet via his company NaughtyTweet.com, which also hosts four other Twitter aggregating sites. Housley told XBIZ that despite Twitter's popularity, most avid Twitter users don't actually dial up the URL Twitter.com, instead opting for services like TweetTree.com, Splitweet.com, Seesmic.com or TweetDeck.com.

Housley also noted the popularity of Twitter apps on the iPhone, adding that using Twitter while on the go plays into the site's central question, "What are you doing?"

But does this story have legs? PCMag.com expressed skepticism about the rumor, noting that all reports about it reference a single shadowy source. Tech pundit of Kara Swisher of the blog AllThingsD.com went even further and laid out a detailed argument debunking the rumor.

"In point of fact, talks with Facebook last year were actually the only truly deep sale discussions that Twitter has been involved in, and those went south," she said. "Oh, the very notion of Apple and Twitter is a techmeme dream-ticket, sure to be chewed over for days on end."

Related:  

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

Florida AG Sues EU-Based Adult Companies for Failing to Age-Verify Users

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit Monday with the 12th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida against five EU-based adult companies for allegedly failing to require age verification before allowing access to adult content.

SkyPrivate Launches 'Telegram Pay-Per-Minute' Feature

SkyPrivate has launched a new pay-per-minute (PPM) private show option on Telegram.

Pineapple Support to Host 'Money and Mental Health' Online Event

Pineapple Support is hosting a free, online event to help performers balance financial wellbeing with mental health, Aug. 18-19.

Arcom Warns 5 Adult Sites Over Age Verification

French media regulator Arcom has sent enforcement notices to the operators of five adult websites that the agency says have failed to implement age verification as required under France’s Security and Regulation of the Digital Space (SREN) law.

MojoHost Debuts NVIDIA Blackwell-Powered Hosting

MojoHost has announced the launch of NVIDIA Blackwell-powered hosting featuring RTX 6000 Pro MaxQ GPUs.

FSC: Identity Theft Targeting Adult Performers

The Free Speech Coalition has put out an alert warning of an individual found to be targeting adult performers for identity theft.

Assylum.com Implements New Age Verification System

Assylum.com has introduced an age verification system across its member sites.

European Commission to Assess Pornhub, XVideos, XNXX Compliance With Digital Services Act

The European Commission plans to conduct a study to determine how well adult sites Pornhub, XVideos and XNXX are addressing illegal content and other potential harms under the EU’s Digital Services Act.

German Higher Court Upholds Ban on PornHub, YouPorn

The Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate on Thursday upheld a “network ban” on Aylo-owned adult sites Pornhub and YouPorn for failing to comply with German age verification regulations.

Alabama Notifying Adult Sites of New Tax Set to Take Effect Sept. 1

The Alabama Department of Revenue has begun sending notices to adult site operators about a new 10% tax on their revenues, set to be enforced starting Sept. 1.

Show More