Twitter has acquired Quill—the Slack-like messaging app that makes messaging more focused. The acquisition is geared towards improving messaging services, such as direct messages.
The acquisition was announced in a series of tweets by Twitter on Tuesday. In the tweet, Twitter’s general manager for core tech, Nick Caldwell said: “fresher, more deliberate way to communicate. We’re bringing their experience and creativity to Twitter as we work to make messaging tools like DMs a more useful & expressive way people can have conversations on the service.”
What will happen with Quill?
Quill will shut down, while its team will join Twitter’s Experience org. In a farewell blog post, “Together with Twitter, we will continue to pursue our original goal—to make online communication more thoughtful, and more effective, for everyone.”
For those who want to export their team message histories, Quill said they will be able to do so until 1PM PT on December 11th. At the point, Quill will be turning off its servers and deleting all available data. The company adds that active customers will get full refunds.
Quill was launched in February by Ludwig Pettersson; a former creative director of payments processing platform Stripe. Ludwig will now be joining Twitter’s conversations team headed by Oji Udezue.
A couple of days ago, Jack Dorsey stepped down as Twitter’s CEO. Jack confirmed this via his Twitter page that he is stepping down as the company’s CEO. Taking Jack’s place, is Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief technology officer, who will take over the helm of affairs effective immediately.
Jack’s replacement Parag Agrawal, has been unanimously appointed as CEO and a member of the Board. Dorsey’s term as member of Board will expire at the 2022 meeting of stockholders; and until then, he remains a member.
Bret Taylor is now the new Chairman of the Board, succeeding Patrick Pichette who also will stay on the Board and continue to serve as chair of the Audit Committee.
Bret Taylor, Twitter’s incoming Independent Board Chair said, “On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Jack for his visionary leadership and unrelenting dedication to Twitter since its founding. Jack returned to Twitter and turned the Company around at the most critical time. The progress since then has been nothing short of incredible. Jack has given the world something invaluable and we will continue to carry it forward.”
Dorsey, 45, stepped down as Twitter CEO in 2008, but returned to the company seven years later. Lately, he has shown interest in cryptocurrencies; and his decision to step down may have to do with it.
