Was it more than a month ago that Google was rumored to be in “late-stage negotiations to acquire Twitter”?

Not so much late-stage, I guess, with a gestation period that seems interminable (and BoomTown has been there, so can speak from experience about interminable pregnancies).

In fact, I’m still waiting for the Google (GOOG) takeover news floated inaccurately back then to cross our desk at All Things Digital HQ, although it’s more likely Godot will show up first.

So I guess it should come as no surprise that it was time to fob yet another rumor that yet another moneybags of a company–this time, Apple (AAPL)–is in “late-stage negotiations to buy Twitter.”

You could set your broken-but-right-twice-a-day clock by it, in fact.

But despite very serious interest in Twitter by every company that can afford considering such a thing, getting across that late-stage line would require major investors in the microblogging service to be involved, and they are not as yet.

In fact, both Twitter co-founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, are in New York today to attend the 2009 “Time 100″ dinner, which fetes this year’s influential people honorees selected by the magazine. Which they are.

So, if they are in serious talks with Apple, they better grab that award and head on home tout de suite.

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.

Oh, the very notion of Apple and Twitter is a Techmeme dream-ticket, sure to be chewed over for days on end. (I once considered doing a post that just said “AppleTwitterAppleTwitterAppleTwitter…” for 1,000 words to see how much idiotic traffic I would get.)

But given that it is too good to be true for now, rather than be on the edge of your seat about all these endless, alleged late-stage high jinks, here is a five-step list to cut out and keep when the rumors of “late-stage negotiations” with Microsoft (MSFT), News Corp. (NWS), Verizon (VZ), Yahoo (YHOO), Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL, Comcast (CMCSA), Cisco (CSCO) and more inevitably show up.

1.) Belle of the Geek Ball

Everyone is indeed actually interested in buying Twitter and each has expressed a proper level of interest to the company’s execs–especially to over-contacted CEO Williams–about said interest.

And, because this is America, a bid for Twitter could come at any time and in any amount.

That’s why Apple has indeed said hello. Why Microsoft’s business development team has been busy formulating a valuation. Why Google’s M&A guy, David Lawee, has called into Twitter’s HQ many times with kind expressions of desire. And why News Corp. execs, including Rupert Murdoch himself, have murmured tweet nothings to the Twitter team.

Please note: This is not the same thing as “late-stage negotiations.” Not at all; so don’t believe such things, as you will see this one coming down the pike for miles (see Step #4 below).

If there ever were an Apple deal to be done, it would not be living in some tidy vacuum.

For example, does one imagine Google CEO Eric Schmidt–who is on the Apple board, much to the FTC’s chagrin, it seems–would decline to enter the fray? Oh, he’d be up to his conflicted eyebrows in it at this point.

(Full disclosure: ATD is also considering making a bid for Twitter, but only if I get to name who is called Chief Twit.)

2.) We Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty

Twitter’s Williams, as well as Stone, do not really want to sell just yet, given the huge traffic over the last year, goosed even further by the whole Oprah-Ashton Kutcher axis of Tweetvil.

Twitter is growing and growing and growing. Does that mean it has peaked or is just crossing over into the mainstream?

I would say the latter and so would its investors and execs.

I have done a lot of reporting and have found that most of them would like a chance to ride this rocket ship and see if they can prevent it from being a shooting star by figuring out some viable, innovative and lucrative business plan.

“Twitter really could make a lot of money,” said one investor. “And we are not just making that up either.”

Well, phew, because I have been a little worried about that.

3.) We’re Living in a Material World, and I Am a Material Girl

That said, as Madonna sings, a pile of cash is a pile of cash and if one of the suitors makes a big move with $600 million or more in cash, it would be hard for Twitter to completely ignore such an offering.

But, in any case, there will be no late-stage negotiations with one player.

Instead, an epic free-for-all wrestling match to the death would break out among all of them, especially Google and Microsoft.

This will be great for me and all the other tech writers as it will be ugly, competitive and tailor-made for breathless reporting.

Google is the likely winner here, although Microsoft is quite intent on the possibilities of integrating Twitter technology with its business offerings.

Someone will, I can predict with certainty, lose an eye.

4.) All the Single Ladies…Cuz if You Liked It, Then You Should Have Put a Ring on It

And, even with that kind of offer–which I would take in a New York minute, as would some Twitter investors–there is a sense when you talk to Twitter’s founders and investors that they truly believe they are onto some very important interactive communications paradigm shift in the Internet arena with their start-up.

I would have to agree given that the real-time and status-update concepts that Twitter has perfectly touched on are a very important one.

Thus, Twitter would prefer to remain independent for now.

Whether Twitter will prevail or not is never assured, but it would be really a shame if it gave up before the story was over.

5.) And They Lived Happily Ever After

Let’s be honest: There is no real downside here for Twitter.

If the service turns out to be be a flash in the pan and it is not sold for big bucks, Twitter still has heralded a very important new era in the digital industry.

And, if it grows like crazy even more, better still.

Also, Stone got to go on “The Colbert Report” and Williams on “Oprah.”

Best of all, in a shameless plug, they will both be captive on stage with Walt Mossberg and me at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference exactly three weeks from today, where we can ask them about all this and more.

So, I am thrilled too.

Who says there are no happy endings?

Until that D7 interview, here is my recent video with Williams and Stone at Twitter’s funky San Francisco HQ:

BoomTown visited Twitter’s San Francisco HQ for a pie-filled tour yesterday.

But I also got a chance to sit down to have a chat with two of its founders, CEO Evan Williams and Biz Stone (pictured here, right to left), about all the doings at the wildly popular microblogging start-up.

For the record, Williams is the quiet one, while Stone is more voluble–but don’t let appearances deceive you, as both are ambitious and aggressive entrepreneurs.

I asked a lot before I did the video–so don’t give me a hard time for not pushing too hard on it–but neither deigned to talk about the swirl of rumors about which giant Internet behemoth–Google (GOOG) or Microsoft (MSFT)–was going to get its wealthy mitts into the innards of Twitter (or not!).

Nonetheless, the pair actually took time to talk about what they think is behind the surge in growth and awareness of the simple-to-use service, as well as the state of innovation in Silicon Valley.

As hard a time as I have given them for Twitter’s defocus on an actual business plan, there is no question that the pair have an unusually compelling product on their hands that has many more possibilities than it does pitfalls.

Both Stone and Williams, in fact, are going to be appearing onstage at our upcoming D: All Things Digital conference in late May to talk about all that and more, so here is a taste of what is to come.

And, yes, that’s a bird–Get it? Tweet!–over Stone’s head, etched in the glass of the conference room door.

(I also did a video tour of Twitter’s HQ with Stone, which is here.)

Here are Williams and Stone:

[Photo taken by Mai Le, posted via Flickr, uploaded to Wikimedia and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0]

Maybe you’ve heard of Twitter?

Fooled you! Just testing to see if you’re paying complete attention to the relentless media attention on the Silicon Valley start-up of the moment!

Well, BoomTown is too, and that’s why I fired up the MINI and motored top-down on over to Twitter’s San Francisco HQ yesterday to get myself a tour of the place by none other than co-founder No-Biz-Like-No-Biz Stone.

(I am quite enjoying making up various biz puns names for him, related to the fact the the well-funded microblogging start-up has not yet settled on a business plan, which Stone quite sportingly takes with very laudable equanimity.

And my new game is to name the burgeoning empire of Twitter. Some ideas: San FranTwittCo. Twittaly. Twittonia. The People’s-With-a-Lot-of-Time-on-Their-Hands Republic of Twittopia.

Until the United Nations weighs in, here’s a patented shaky-cam Flip video of my visit to the office, to which I brought pies as a guest–I was brought up right!–and where I found no Google (GOOG) or Microsoft (MSFT) folks hiding in the closet with big bags of money to hand over to Twitter.

Well, not yet.

On the visit, I also did a video interview with Stone and Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams here.

Here is Stone’s tour of Twitter HQ:

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090414/kara-visits-twitters-san-frantwittco-hq/feed/ 2 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20081209/kara-visits-the-nyts-saul-hansell-and-gets-the-non-mortgaged-tour-of-the-new-hq/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20081209/kara-visits-the-nyts-saul-hansell-and-gets-the-non-mortgaged-tour-of-the-new-hq/#comments Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:01:12 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=7394

If BoomTown had known on my recent visit that the New York Times (NYT) was trying to borrow money, using its spanking new building as collateral, I might have brought a big bag of greenbacks with me just to say I held a mortgage on the stunning edifice.

No matter, as I got a most excellent free tour of the Renzo Piano-designed building at 40th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and lunch last week from the Times’s longtime and sharp tech reporter Saul Hansell, whom I have known since AOL reigned supreme over the Web landscape.

(Apparently, his link-averse boss told him to watch me like a hawk on my visit, in case I might shoplift some secret tech news stories they were working on. As if the tiny but crack ATD blog team needs any kind of help from the big, bad Times!)

And, because I aim to annoy, I prodded Hansell into waxing a bit on the state of the Internet and the tech sector, from his new cubicle on the lower news floors of the really impressive Times HQ.

(Having worked in the sad-sack, grimy offices of two major newspapers, it is a revelation of what the newsroom of the future should look like.)

Listen up to what Hansell has to say, because while he is indeed worthy competition for ATD, the veteran reporter has been around the block and has picked up a thing or two.

Most importantly, he has also done an amazing job transforming himself in his new life as a blogger for the Times’s Bits blog.

Here’s the video interview:

[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20081209/kara-visits-the-nyts-saul-hansell-and-gets-the-non-mortgaged-tour-of-the-new-hq/feed/ 0 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080622/they-grow-up-so-quickly-new-central-hq-for-facebook-coming-soon/ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080622/they-grow-up-so-quickly-new-central-hq-for-facebook-coming-soon/#comments Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:01:27 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=2205

It looks like Facebook will definitely be moving from its funky multi- building setup in downtown Palo Alto, Calif., to a centralized campus in Silicon Valley by early next year, said several sources.

The high-profile social networking company–which has been undergoing a major managerial shift of late, as it matures from its start-up status to that of a more established Web player–has been growing quickly–to almost 600 employees today from a couple hundred last year.

It is not clear when the move will take place, but sources said it is likely to start by the beginning of next year, as there are multiple permits, design issues and other logistical issues to resolve.

But, one thing is clear: Facebook will relocate its Palo Alto-based HQ–scattered in about five buildings throughout the suburban town–to a single location.

New HQ possibilities include, first and foremost, the old Hewlett-Packard buildings on Page Mill Road, nearby to the west of Palo Alto.

Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg prefers to remain near Palo Alto, sources said.

But Facebook has also been looking at locations in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, further south, as well as also considering a San Francisco location in the city’s recently redeveloped Mission Bay area.

Until now, Facebook has expanded by filling up rented buildings throughout Palo Alto, the picturesque town right next to Stanford University.

The appeal of being located in Palo Alto–full of shops, restaurants movies and also within walking distance of the main train station into San Francisco–has been a draw for its employees, who have, until recently, gotten some rental subsidies for being located near its offices.

But–as it has grown–Facebook’s presence in town has also become a problem for it and also the town’s citizens, as its swarms of employees have taken up too much space and parking in the increasingly crowded streets.

Growing further in Palo Alto is almost impossible, given the lack of office space and the higher expense, compared to the more typical office-park setups off Highway 101 in Silicon Valley that most Internet companies settle into.

Given Facebook’s plans to grow to 1,000 employees by the end of this year, it’s not a surprise that managers would be thinking of the next home for the company, making a move that is typical for most start-ups.

Sheryl Sandberg, the COO brought in from Google (GOOG) recently, saw such a thing happen to the search giant, which now has a large campus called the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif.

Over the past six months, there has been a lot of upgrading of Facebook’s looser culture to bring it up to a more professional operation it needs to be if it wants to IPO at some point.

That has meant a lot of internal rejiggering, as well as what BoomTown can only describe as a maturing of its frat-like culture.

There have also been departures of several of its early employees, which also always happens as start-ups mature. Those who have left include: former top exec Owen Van Natta and CTO Adam D’Angelo.

And, just last week, Matt Cohler, its VP of Product Management and longtime adviser to Zuckerberg, announced he will leave Facebook in the fall to become a venture capital partner at Benchmark Capital.

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