

Twitter to acquire TwitPic - jflowers45
http://recode.net/2014/10/25/twitter-to-acquire-twitpic/

======
minimaxir
To recap:

a) TwitPic got into a trademark dispute with Twitter and decided to shut down
instead of fighting it. ([http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/04/twitpic-to-shut-
down-on-sep...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/04/twitpic-to-shut-down-on-
september-25th-following-legal-demands-from-twitter/))

b) TwitPic says "just kidding," as they found an acquirer.
([http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/18/6445597/twitpic-says-it-
wo...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/18/6445597/twitpic-says-it-wont-be-
shutting-down-after-all))

c) TwitPic says "just kidding on the just kidding," as the talks fell through
and they are actually shutting down.
([http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/16/twitpic-couldnt-find-an-
acq...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/16/twitpic-couldnt-find-an-acquirer-
will-shut-down-after-all-on-oct-25th/))

d) TwitPic says "just kidding on the just kidding" again, as they are acquired
after all.

It's impossible to take startups seriously sometimes.

~~~
cdr
At least according to past comment threads, "TwitPic" is literally one single
person.

Though I suppose failed "startups" being just one or two people behind a name
might not be uncommon.

------
birken
I like how the news story says "acquired", but the actual blog post
([http://blog.twitpic.com/2014/10/twitpics-
future/](http://blog.twitpic.com/2014/10/twitpics-future/)) doesn't use that
word and says that Twitpic is essentially just giving the domain and existing
data to twitter.

Generally "acquired" means a) they pay a lot of money for the company and b)
some or all of the employees of that company work at the new place. I'm
guessing in this case neither of those are true. Granted on the scale of
"sensationalist headlines" this isn't worth losing sleep over, but it's funny
that the tech press can't help itself in covering stories like this.

------
brianbreslin
I am curious what twitpic gets out of this financially? Twitter has incentive
to not have millions of tweets include broken images (I presume). Must have
been a hundred K to cover the old server bills etc. /speculation

------
jszymborski
What I'm getting from this is that TwitPic was just holding the pictures
hostage until it got the ransom it decided it deserved.

~~~
Dystopian
Pretty much, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Twitter kneecapped TwitPic with a trademark lawsuit - which was already a
single-founder company, in a lot of pain after they encouraged use of his
platform for years and created their own internal alternative.

The only asset he had left was the IP on the servers as a bargaining point.
"Twitter, you're gonna have a crapload of 404s on your service unless you give
us some kind of safe-landing".

You can see why at that time he wouldn't want archive.org backing up the
entire archive, allowing Twitter to then batch change the permalinks.

Yes, it's user generated content - but IP is a main value add which
contributes to why companies are valued so highly. This is a prime example of
someone leveraging that properly. We can be mad about it, it's not pretty, but
it's business.

------
TimWolla
What a back and forth, I wonder how long it takes until Twitter finally shuts
it down.

~~~
leviathan
I wonder if Twitter did this just it shut them up.

------
yuhong
Why did this take so long to announce?

