Twitter has acquired the popular blogging platform Posterous, which is known for its ease of use for mobile blogging and cross-platform posting.
The latest announcement marks Twitter's sixth acquisition within the past year alone. The micro-blogging site has bought services such as social news aggregator Summify, anti-malware company Dasient, privacy software provider Whisper Systems, and list creator Bagcheck. Its biggest acquisition to date has been TweetDeck, which it bought for $40 million in May last year.
In a statement on Twitter's official blog, the micro-blogging giant says: “Posterous engineers, product managers and others will join our teams working on several key initiatives that will make Twitter even better.”
The terms of the deal have not been released and it is not clear whether Twitter will incorporate some Posterous elements into its service or if it is purely a talent acquisition.
Twitter says it supports Posterous' goal of making it easier to share across the Web and mobile devices. Posterous also posted a statement echoing the same sentiment, saying: “The opportunities in front of Twitter are exciting, and we couldn't be happier about bringing our team's expertise to a product that reaches hundreds of millions of users around the globe.”
Posterous was founded in 2008, and emerged from the tech incubator Y Combinator. While the service is not as popular as blogging competitor Tumblr, it has amassed an estimated 9.2 million monthly active users and has over 12.3 million blogs.
The blogging platform has assured users that Posterous Spaces will remain available and will not be disrupted as yet. Posterous says it will provide its users “ample notice” if any changes are implemented, and has not stated outright whether the service will eventually be shut down.
However, the service has also said it will provide users with information as to how to export their content to other platforms in the coming weeks. “The last four years have been an amazing journey. Your encouragement, praise and criticism have made us better,” says Posterous. “We look forward to building great things for you over at Twitter.”
Twitter strategy
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says on the surface Twitter's acquisition of Posterous is a “grab and smash” strategy as opposed to an “acquire and build” one.
“Posterous is a great companion service to Twitter, so it will be a lost opportunity if they bought it merely to strip its human assets.
“Having said that, Twitter needs to fill the large gaps in its mobile expertise, which, in effect, handed its biggest growth area to third-party app developers. This is a serious step towards reclaiming its own customers.”
In the context of Twitter's strategy looking ahead, Goldstuck says: “If Twitter considers this only as a quick and easy form of talent acquisition, then we can expect to see more such grab and smash moves.
“However, Posterous provides Twitter with the opportunity of extending its reach beyond 140 characters, and adding the weight and depth of real content to its content-lite offering.”
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