There were some rumors [1] recently that Google was considering to buy Twitter.

Now I don't know if there's anything to that, but in light of Facebook snatching up Instagram, (not to mention WhatsApp), Google moving in on Twitter seems like a fairly logical counter-move.

And just think of all the data!

My point is, this deal might be at Google's initiative, not Twitter's, and might represent the first step in that direction. It's just conjecture, of course..

[1]: http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/23/google-is-absolutely-posit...