Twitter Aquires TweetDeck for £25 Million

After much speculation, Twitter have confirmed the £25 Million acquisition of the third-party client TweetDeck on Tuesday. Rumors of the possible purchase came to fruition in April when it was believed Twitter was in the later stages of finalizing a deal with TweetDeck. Then UberMedia, a company many commentators feel is aiming to rival Twitter, was believed to have started negotiating as well with TweetDeck.

The TweetDeck client is popular as it will allow users to organise feeds of brands, celebrities and people they follow on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn amongst other social network sites.

The purchase of TweetDeck by Twitter is speculated to be a defensive approach by the social networking site, as an attempt to gain control over the growth and innovation increasingly driven by third-parties. Its estimated that prior to the acquisition 13% of all tweets are sent from TweetDeck.

Due to the nature of the purchase, many TweetDeck users are in doubt for what the future holds for the service. According to fanspagelist.com, in the days following the announcement, TweetDeck's tweet account became amongst the most followed in the world. Many speculate that Twitter will incorporate some of TweetDeck's features as well as discontinue services too, key areas being the current integration with other social network sites, such as Facebook.