Interest in Ad.ly, an advertising platform that lets users post sponsored updates on their Twitter account, recently increases.

Although for the most part the company has been quietly operating from their Beverly Hills headquarters, it occasionally pops up in the news, like when they were banned from Facebook for monetizing Facebook page feeds – something that Facebook presumably would prefer to do itself. The company is also behind the whole ‘Charlie Sheen is on Twitter’ thing.

And now, a handful of companies are reported to be interested in acquiring Ad.ly.

The value of Ad.ly isn’t really in the paid endorsement revenue. What buyers are looking at are the company’s ties with a ton of celebrities, and the fact that a lot of celebrities looking to get involved on Twitter usually call the company and ask for advice.

Those relationships are hugely valuable to companies like Twitter, who owe much of their success to celebrities embracing the product, and to companies like Google, who are looking for celebrities to jump start growth at Google+.

Although neither is confirmed potential buyers, it is likely that they are among those taking a look. Don’t be surprised if one of them, or someone else, acquires the company sometime soon.