While TechCrunch has reported a rumour that UberMedia has just acquired TweetDeck, the company itself is staying tight-lipped. CEO Iain Dodsworth told me today “We’re not going to comment on acquisition rumours.” Heck, that’s his prerogative. That being said, we have very good sources that told us today that the deal was for $30 million, UberMedia’s largest deal yet. Bill Gross’ company, after buying EchoFon, another popular Twitter client, now controls 20% of the userbase of Twitter.
TweetDeck had raised a little over $5 million in funding. But it started from humble roots.
My first interview with TweetDeck’s Dodsworth was at TechCrunch 50 in 2008 in the form of a podcast I laughingly called Butcher’s Bunch (archive here). At the time Dodsworth explained how Tweetdeck had largely started out as a hobby project.
But it was clear that many, many Twitter users loved his interface onto Twitter. Suddenly you could filter people you followed into manageable groups. It was a God-send for journalists like me wanting to track the market. I even used it to break stories.
Not long after, in January 2009, Tweetdeck won $500,000 in Angel backing from Betaworks.
Tweetdeck was now on a roll. Even Mark Zuckerberg admitted to using it that March.
An iPhone app continued the traction, and the desktop air app just got better and better. A Chrome app and further improvement confirmed it as the most powerful Twitter client out there.
Personally I thught it would last longer as an independent, having recently launched it’s Deck.ly product, which felt like a push into the Tumblr space.
But hey, I guess you have to know when to hold them and fold them.
Last word from Dodsworth? He had no further comment, but he did say “The timing of GeeknRolla is perfect…”
Read that how you will. But it looks like he will reveal all there…