What Twitter client did Twitter acquire in 2011?

Twitter acquired the Twitter client TweetDeck in 2011. TweetDeck was created by London-based programmer Iain Dodsworth as a dashboard for organizing fast-moving Twitter conversations. Instead of showing one undifferentiated stream, it arranged updates in columns, allowing users to monitor searches, lists, mentions and multiple accounts at once.

The acquisition was officially announced on May 25, 2011. Twitter viewed TweetDeck as especially useful for power users, brands, publishers and marketers who needed more control than the standard Twitter website offered. Reports placed the deal at roughly £25 million, or about $40 million, although Twitter’s financial filings recorded a lower accounting purchase price.

TweetDeck remained a recognizable product after joining Twitter and later became closely integrated with the company’s professional tools. In 2023, the service was relaunched for verified users and subsequently rebranded as X Pro. A common mix-up is confusing TweetDeck with social-media scheduling services such as Buffer, Hootsuite or Sprout Social; TweetDeck began primarily as a real-time monitoring and column-based client.