UberMedia came very close to acquiring TweetDeck for $25-$30 million in February, but Twitter, on its own initiative, made a counter offer,  putting the company in play again, and now Twitter has finalized a deal to purchase for between $40-$50 million.

A source with knowledge of discussions said the agreement will be formally announced within the next few days.

Twitter is buying TweetDeck, a company that makes an Adobe Air application to neatly bring in a multitude of social media in an easy to view columned user interface, mainly because it can’t afford to let UberMedia claim so much of a market  that has been primarily Twitter’s domain.

UberMedia has previously purchased several other Twitter related companies including EchoFon and UberTwitter, and if it had also acquired TweetDeck it would have gained even more ground in its move to take more market share in this space.  So, Twitter made a successful defensive move to nix the deal.

TweetDeck is now the most popular Twitter application that is not made by Twitter.

About David John Walker

Dave has a B.A. in Mathematics, loves writing and reading about the latest developments in technology and social media, and has been working as a freelance writer for five years.