14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter has had a strained relationship with developers building on its platform lately, especially those working on third-party clients. Twitter has said in no uncertain terms that it doesn't look too kindly towards this kind of apps and that it's aiming for a unified experience.
But there is some hope for those still in the business of building Twitter clients, they may just be acquired by the company.
That's the latest rumor around TweetDeck, the most popular desktop client, a favorite of power users. Apparently, Twitter is in talks to acquire the company, which also makes alternative web-based and mobile clients, for a reported $50 million.
The interesting thing is that TweetDeck was said to be in final talks with UberMedia as well, a few months back. UberMedia was offering some $30 million at the time, though, of course, those talks haven't been confirmed either.
UberMedia doesn't have the greatest relationship with Twitter these days, especially after Twitter suspended its app for "policy violations."
In fact, it may very well be one of the reasons why Twitter is interested in TweetDeck in the first place. Other than that, there aren't that many explanations for why would Twitter want to buy the app maker.
Twitter already has an app for all popular platforms, it doesn't have a desktop app, but the website is fairly powerful, so it doesn't need any of the products, not unless it plans to offer an 'advanced' version for power users, which would contradict its stated goal of an unified platform.
But Twitter certainly can afford $50 million for a talent acquisition or even to block UberMedia's moves, especially since one of the rumors is that the company is looking to build a Twitter competitor. Twitter won't comment on the rumors, of course, so we'll just have to wait and see how this plays out.