Twitter holds out tin cup to Microsoft and Google

Google and Microsoft, aren't saying a thing, according to Reuters, and the guys over at Twitter, apparently, weren't immediately available. They were probably dreaming up new ways to spend all the cash they figure they'll be rolling in.

If one of these deals comes through, it would probably be even better than the corporate account revenue stream that Twitter's trying to develop. Reselling data -- that's generally available to the public anyway -- keeps the service free and provides a small company with a small base of paying customers, which makes the sales and account management process a whole lot easier and less expensive. This means lower overhead and hopefully more cash to be invested in the environment, new functionality and other benefits to the people who aren't paying for the service.

Also, it could free up some cash to invest in marketing, which brings new users, more tweets, and more and better data to the companies paying the bills. Twitter would still be nuts not to develop the corporate account revenue model, but selling the data seems like an absolute no-brainer. And, it might lead to a payout for all those investors.