Twitter has just gone and hired an ex-banker with leaps and bounds of experience in IPOs, acquisitions and mergers, ostensibly to head up its corporate development team. Nevertheless, the move immediately sparked rumors that the microblogging site could be about to make its market debut.

Talk of a Twitter IPO has been doing the rounds for some time, and even though the initial public offerings of tech firms like Facebook, Groupon and Zynga all failed to set the markets alight, investors can’t help but wet themselves with excitement over the prospect. Probably all the more so now it’s likely to happen sooner or later.

Why such confidence? Because Twitter’s new hire is none other than Cynthia Gaylor, who was the brains behind Facebook’s, LinkedIn’s and Zynga’s IPOs. Now she’s onboard at Twitter, it would seem to be a clear indicator that they too, are plotting their own entry into the investor game,

Despite Facebook et al’s disappointing performance since going public, there’s every reason to think that Twitter might not suffer the same fate, given that it’s already becoming rather profitable thank you very much, and is currently targeting an ambitious $1 billion in revenue for the current financial year. Moreover, it would seem that there’s plenty of appetite among investors looking to get a piece of Twitter’s action – just a few weeks ago, asset manager Black Rock made a significant investment in the microblogging at a hefty $9 billion valuation.

Following her appointment, Gaylor (somewhat appropriately) tweeted the news, saying that she’s “looking forward to joining and focusing on M&A and strategy.” She didn’t mention anything about an IPO, but considering that Twitter’s stance has always been to deny its considering one, that much was expected.

There is a chance that Gaylor’s been hired for other reasons. For example, she’s very experienced with acquisitions, and her skills would come in useful given that Twitter’s been on something of a spending spree of late, snapping up businesses like Crashlytics, Bluefin Labs and We Are Hunted. But then again, her skills would be much better utilized in helping the company avoid the kind of IPO embarrassment suffered by the tech companies mentioned above.

In sort-of related news elsewhere on the Twitter front, one of the world’s wealthiest men has finally tweeted his first tweet. Going by the handle @WarrenBuffet, the super-rich investor has so far picked up something in the region of 290,000 followers so far, no doubt all of them eager to cash in on snippets of the wise one’s wisdom.

Now that he’s become more accessible, perhaps someone should tweet Mr. Buffet and ask him his thoughts on Twitter’s IPO?