I highly doubt this is real - and if it were I'd be extremely disappointed in Apple. $700M is better invested in a lot of technology that will get them real gains, as opposed to buying a service that is neither profitable nor in possession of any technology that can't be replicated in-house for cheaper.

So at best they're buying the brand - which is still nothing near household, and I would argue worth a lot less than the quoted price tag.

I mostly agree with you, but Twitter has become a household name. CNN, FOX, and all the other news shows just love to toss in a comment about Twitter when it's even slightly relevant.

Apple is a household name.

Not to mention The White House, the CDC, etc.

You know what else is a household name? Hitler.

A UK newspaper website?

But seriously, if the company is making no revenue, that sum is just for the user base. So how much does that make the value of every user? (does anyone have a current user count for twitter? I could only find figures from February but I imagine its much higher now.)

They have around 25m users according to TC. that makes it about $28 per user. Which is alright, I have seen higher numbers per user.

Are those active? I've heard a lot of Twitter's "users" sign up but aren't posting.

Also some people create 650 accounts ;)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=592438

The telegraph is very credible in my book but this story is so difficult to believe. Too random and nonsensical.