Was it more than a month ago that the 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)–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.Talks with Facebook last year were actually the only truly deep sale discussions that Twitter has been involved in and those went south.So, rather than be on the edge of your seat about all these endless, alleged late-stage hijinks, 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 next.1.) Belle of the Geek BallEveryone is indeed actually interested in buying Twitter and have each expressed a proper level of interest to the company’s execs–most especially, the over-contacted CEO Biz Stone–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 its HQ many times with kind expressions of desire. And why