Reports are coming in that everyone’s favorite site to post your thoughts in 140 characters or less, Twitter, has acquired TweetDeck, the uber popular desktop and mobile application that let’s users read tweets and post to twitter.
Twitter, ending months of rumor and speculation, has bought TweetDeck for a reported 40 million in stock and cash. It was reported in February that UberMedia, the company which owns UberSocial(which used to be called UberTwitter until Twitter forced them to change their name)and Twidroyd, both popular Twitter apps for Blackberry and Android respectively, offered $30 million for TweetDeck. In April, Twitter countered their offer with $50 million. Apparently, Twitter won out.
TweetDeck has been downloaded more than 20 million times since 2008, and even has support for other social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. As is customary, neither TweetDeck nor Twitter have officially commented on the reports, with a Twitter spokesperson saying, “For all of those that might be curious, we continue not to comment on rumors.”
I guess Twitter is taking the unofficial Microsoft approach when it comes to those it views as competition. If you can’t beat them, buy them.