TweetDeck announced today that it had been acquired by Twitter after several weeks of such rumours. The deal was completed yesterday and sources estimate it at over US$40 million in cash and stock. According to Iain Dodsworth, TweetDeck Founder and CEO:
The past three years have been an epic journey, with many highs and lows, accompanied by the constant thrill of never really knowing what to expect next. We’ve grown from one team member and a single user, to a team of fifteen and a user-base of millions. The reason for this growth is simple – our unwavering focus on providing high-quality tools and services for the Twitter-centric power-user. This has always been our core audience – the most active, influential and valuable users of Twitter and social media in general. Quality over quantity.
It is precisely for this reason that Twitter has acquired TweetDeck. The mainstream Twitter user-base is well catered for by twitter.com and the official mobile clients. And by becoming part of the official platform, TweetDeck will now fill that role for brands, influencers, the highly active and anyone that just needs “more power”.
It remains to be seen what is in store for TweetDeck now. Twitter already has official apps for iOS and Android so I also wonder how TweetDeck will fit into this picture.