TweetDeck and Twitter officially tie the knot
After plenty of speculation and reports, Twitter announced officially today on its blog that the company had acquired popular third-party client TweetDeck.
“This acquisition is an important step forward for us,” the company wrote. “TweetDeck provides brands, publishers, marketers and others with a powerful platform to track all the real-time conversations they care about. In order to support this important constituency, we will continue to invest in the TweetDeck that users know and love.”
After Twitter’s purchase of iPhone app Tweetie and its partnership with TwitPic, it wasn’t exactly shocking to hear the company wanted to buy one of the most popular third-party Twitter clients, which has versions available for desktop, iPhone, iPad, and Android. The company has indicated in the past it wanted to better control the user experience, and such, acquisitions like this are the easiest way to accomplish that goal.
Iain Dodsworth, CEO of Tweetdeck, said on the official Tweetdeck blog that he was “extremely happy and proud.” And with a reported $40 million mix of cash and stock going to Dodsworth, his investors, and his team, who wouldn’t be happy?
A few weeks ago, TechCrunch reported the first tidbits of the deal. TechCrunch initially cited a $40 million to $50 million range for the purchase, and if the CNN report holds up, TC’s first report will prove accurate.
Just last month UberMedia was supposedly in the process of buying Tweetdeck and had a 30-day exclusive to buy. But negotiations took too long, and that gave Twitter time to propose a better offer. The company is also encouraging external developers to focus on something other than straightforward Twitter clients.
The only downside to Twitter purchasing Tweetdeck will be the loss of an innovative, popular client pushing Twitter to add new features and come up with better ideas. On the upside, having Twitter and Tweetdeck on the same team could mean better and faster integration between service and client.
