Oft-rumoured lately, the reported sale of the TweetDeck Twitter client to Twitter itself now looks more likely, with both TechCrunch and Reuters reporting it will happen in the next few days. Single sources for each site say the price is up to $50 million in cash and stock.
Bill Gross’ aggressive Ubermedia roll-up had reportedly been courting TweetDeck, in a move which might have helped it become one of the main client vendors for accessing Twitter.
Reuters’ source reiterates something Mike Butcher reported last week: “UberMedia had a 30 day exclusive on that deal. But negotiations took too long and it expired, allowing Twitter to emerge with a $50 million offer for Tweetdeck”
The move will be interesting, since Twitter had been discouraging the client app community it had initially engendered, instead promoting its own official Twitter mobile app – likely to secure control over ad inventory distributed through such apps.
Will Twitter pull the best of TweetDeck’s features in to its own client app, which it originally released after buying the Tweetie app – or will a Twitter-owned TweetDeck, founded by Iain Dodsworth, continue to operate as a separate brand, perhaps targeted at more sophisticated users who might need its multiple accounts and so on?