Twitter officially confirmed its long-rumored acquisition of TweetDeck on Wednesday morning in a company blog post written by CEO Dick Costolo. Soon after Twitter’s announcement, TweetDeck also confirmed the deal in a company blog post penned by its CEO Iain Dodsworth. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Twitter/TweetDeck rumors have been flying around for weeks now, so lots of folks have had time to form opinions about the tie-up. Here are some of the more interesting takes on the situation:
- TweetDeck could be a big part of Twitter’s new advertising revenue strategy.
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo stressed TweetDeck’s appeal to “brands, publishers, marketers” in his blog post announcing the deal. TweetDeck’s CEO Iain Dodsworth placed similar emphasis on his company’s high-end appeal as a tool for “brands, influencers, the highly active and anyone that just needs ‘more power.’”
Entrepreneur James Eliason translates the official spin from Twitter/TweetDeck as such:
@jameseliason
James EliasonTweetdeck is now Twitter's branded power user app. It will be heavily ad supported. And you can pay for no ads. #predictionReplyRetweetFavorite
- TweetDeck’s valuation may have been sweetened by UberMedia rumors.
Although terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, various reports have pegged the Twitter/TweetDeck deal’s value at $ 40 million in a mix of cash and stock. It’s always worth noting that unconfirmed deal and valuation rumors can’t always be relied upon. TweetDeck itself has been incorrectly reported to sell before, most notably in a February report that it had been bought by UberMedia at a value of some $ 25 million.
While the UberMedia/TweetDeck rumors clearly proved false, GigaOM’s Mathew Ingram wrote earlier this month that the buzz probably amped up Twitter’s interest in the company:
“One of the obvious motives for acquiring TweetDeck, as we’ve written before, is to keep it out of the hands of UberMedia — the Bill Gross startup that has had a contentious relationship with Twitter since it was first created last year, in part because the company made it clear that it wanted to set up a competing advertising model and possibly a complete alternative network to Twitter. UberMedia was also said to be in talks with TweetDeck, but those expired without any resolution. Preventing Gross from acquiring the company, and bringing those users into the Twitter family, could justify the $ 50 million that Twitter is reportedly offering.”
- TweetDeck’s compatibility with Twitter’s competitors is now in jeopardy.
One of the biggest concerns among TweetDeck users is that the service will no longer integrate with other social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, PC World’s JR Raphael wrote this week:
“But would [Twitter] want to maintain the integration with competing services like Facebook and Foursquare under its company banner? Would it be in Twitter’s best interest to leave TweetDeck’s robust customizability in place? …I’m not so sure it would.”
Social media marketing exec Tammy Fennel was more straightforward with her prediction:
“Tweetdeck will probably be a Twitter only client. Goodbye Facebook, Goodbye Linkedin.”
For the record, in an interview with AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka Wednesday morning, Tweetdeck CEO Iain Dodsworth said he “can’t see [TweetDeck’s multiservice integration] going away anytime soon.” But he also pointed out that “the reality of it is that TweetDeck usage has been heavily Twitter based, withe the external services.. acting more as a value add.”
- Buying TweetDeck could be another stickiness play for a maturing Twitter.
In an article published Wednesday morning, International Business Times reporter Manikandan Raman wrote that this could be an attempt to bring more of the Twitter ecosystem in-house:
“The deal makes complete sense as Twitter as a way to read and write tweets is a no-frills platform that loses many people once they get some experience and start to explore alternatives. A recent report from Sysomos shows that 42 percent of all tweets are made using non-official Twitter services and applications, which included TweetDeck.”
If you have any thoughts on the Twitter/TweetDeck deal, please chime in using the comments.
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