Rumor: Twitter purchased TweetDeck for $40-50 million

By Jeffrey Van Camp May 2, 2011

Twitter wants more control over its platform. What better way to reach that goal than purchasing one of its top third-party clients? According to sources close to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, Twitter has definitively purchased TweetDeck for somewhere between $40 and $50 million.

Of course, this is a reversal of the TechCrunch article from February that stated UberMedia had definitively purchased TweetDeck. Arrington claims that Twitter got wind of the TweetDeck deal and offered more money than UberMedia. Twitter feared having too many of its clients owned by one company. UberMedia already owns EchoFon, a popular Twitter client. If it would have gone through through with the purchase, that would have equalled roughly 30 percent of active Tweeters.

Has Twitter actually purchased TweetDeck? Did it make the buy in a defensive move against UberMedia–a company that Twitter shut off service to not so long ago? We don’t know, but if this is all true, an announcement should come in the next few days, claims Arrington.

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Jeffrey Van Camp

Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…

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