I tweet, therefore, I am —

Updated: Apple may invest “hundreds of millions” in Twitter

A partnership between the two companies would help Apple tap social media.

Apple is considering investing in Twitter "in the hundreds of millions of dollars," according the New York Times late Friday. If true, the move could make Twitter worth more than $10 billion.

The Times admits that the companies are not in negotiations, and no deal may actually come to pass, but Apple's integration of Twitter in its recent Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 (and a promise of Facebook integration coming soon), show that the massive company is taking social media seriously. "[S]uch a deal would give Apple more access to Twitter’s deep understanding of the social Web, and pave the way for closer Twitter integration into Apple’s products," the Times wrote.

Apple, with its $117 billion in liquid investments, and Twitter, with its 140 million monthly active users, have much to gain from each other, not the least of which is the ability to compete more fiercely with Google and Facebook. Better yet, neither company really needs the other— Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is quoted as saying the social media company had "boatloads of cash," and while Apple's failed attempts at social media have been profound, it has done extremely well as a business (so far) without social data.

Update: The Wall Street Journal and AllThingsD now report that "people familiar with the matter" say these talks happened "more than a year ago." The Journal reports that " there are no current formal investment or acquisition discussions between the companies," but the Times also noted that there are no formal negotiations between the two companies at the moment.

Channel Ars Technica