• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, May 24, 2011

Taking out another potential competitor, Twitter has reportedly acquired TweetDeck for more than $40 million in cash and stock. "Twitter has been known to either downplay third-party apps or acquire them," writes CNNMoney.com. "In the past, Twitter has scooped up popular Twitter iPhone app Tweetie, and partnered with photo add-on TwitPic as it launched its new interface."

"Why would Twitter want to buy a third-party client?" asks PCWorld. "Twitter's acquisition of TweetDeck is seen mainly as a defensive move ... UberMedia already controls a significant chunk of users through its mobile apps, and TweetDeck would have given the company more leverage against Twitter's plans to deter new third-party clients to duplicate the functionality of its official apps and Web site."

"It seems that Twitter just wasn't comfortable with allowing UberMedia to snatch another chunk of market share," TechCrunch writes. "After all, Twitter can't just go allowing Twitter-related startups and products to fall into the hands of those companies that aren't Twitter."

"Twitter started making its own apps last spring after it bought ... Tweetie, and Twitter claims that 90 percent of people use the company's official apps," reports PCMag.com. That said, "It's looking more and more likely that the rumors of a TweetDeck acquisition are true, and if they are, Twitter will have tightened its grip around the space."

"Since Ev Williams left Twitter and Jack Dorsey took over as the company's CEO -- both of them co-founders -- the company has focused on building the feature set that the majority of users have found lacking in the company's own Web client, which lead to the mass adoption of a range of third-party clients," The Next Web writes. "TweetDeck was the most popular of them all."

If true, the acquisition "demonstrates how desperate the company has become about owning its microblogging experience," Vator News writes. "And, in the end, it clearly has a lot to do with money."