Twitter buys Tweetdeck for up to $50 mill

One true way to clear out the competition, is to buy it all up. And sometimes, buying one company can prevent a cornering of the market. That looks to be what Twitter has done with Tweetdeck by snatching the alternative micro-blog out of the hands of UberMedia with a bid of $40-50 million dollars.

Back in February, there were reports that UberMedia properties were acquiring TweetDeck for around $30 million. But Twitter, not to be undone, dove in the deep in with both feet and a very quiet counter offer that TweetDeck couldn’t refuse.

TweetDeck is a Twitter Client that is based on Adobe Air and uses a unique multi column display to manage a user’s Twitter Feed. This enabled users to manage what can be an overwhelming amount of “tweets” coming in realtime. Two other Twitter clients, EchoFon and UberTwitter had been acquired by UberMedia at the time and UberMedia had set it sights on TweetDeck in an effort to gobble up more real estate. So clearly, Twitter had to make a bold move to prevent their core business from being cornered out from under them. By securing the acquisition of TweetDeck, Twitter has denied UberMedia dominance in the TwitterSphere.

Back in February,we reported that Twitter had suspended UberMedia properties from the Twitter API for violation of privacy and trademark infringements. And although Tweetdeck wasn’t part of that suspension, UberMedia had been trying to acquire it at the time. If UberMedia had been allowed to gobble up TweetDeck, it would’ve been more powerful and far more difficult to keep in line with Twitter’s terms of service. The acquisition by Twitter could keep UberMedia in check. Or at the very least, send a very strong message who’s game it really is.

[via SlashGear]