Earlier in February we had reported on UberMedia’s acquisition talks with TweetDeck, a land grab move that would have given Bill Gross’ UberMedia control of nearly 20% of all tweets served. But the acquisition did not actually close.
Shortly there-afterward Twitter shut down and then reinstated three UberMedia apps (Twidroyd, UberCurrent and UberSocial) for violating TOS policies. Hmm …
The WSJ is today reporting that Twitter and UberMedia have crossed paths once more, and that the status update giant is also in talks with TweetDeck, offering around $50 million for the Twitter client. We had reported that Ubermedia’s TweetDeck offer was between $25-$30 million.
This move (and overbid by about $20 million) if true, would seem to be a defensive one by Twitter, especially in light of a CNN report that Gross is “outlining plans” to build a Twitter competitor. UberMedia currently has $21 million in funding to Twitter’s $360 million.
I’ve contacted all parties involved including TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth for more information and will update this post if they respond with anything useful.