Facebook announced integration of real-time updates to its user homepages. This clearly looks like a move to clone twitter functionaliy.
Facebook tried unsuccesfully to buy twitter for $500M back in november 2008. Twitter seems to be gaining real momentum recently and on its way to crossing the chasm from silicon valley techies to main stream users.
I would bet that google and facebook would love to buy twitter though they may not find the price tag to their liking. They can buy other companies such as friendfeed but there is only one twitter.
Twitter is increasingly seen as a realtime search engine and a complement to google’s search business. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently commented in his interview with Charlie Rose that they are not looking to make any acquistions because he thinks the prices are still too high. He seems to be under the impression that prices of companies woud drop as the economic reality hits home. He mentioned that google is generating a lot of cash which they are keeping safely in highly secure banks. So he clearly feels cash is king and wants to wait for the right time to pounce.
Facebook also may find twitter out of their price range and would like to neutralize the growth and success of twitter. Integrating twitter like functionalitty is a move in that direction. Facebook, like twitter, is still looking for an effective way to monetize their users. This adds to the risk of facebook acquiring twitter.
I think twitter has established a strong first mover advantage and it is going to be hard for any company to threaten its place. I don’t think facebook integrating twitter like functionality will make too much of a dent in twitter’s growth. The horse has already left the barn. I would like to see twitter stay independent and figure out its business model and continue to innovate.