Hot on the heals of news that Facebook and Twitter couldn’t agree on an acquisition deal, news broke yesterday that Twitter had purchased Values of n.
So what?
Values of n produces Stikkit and Sandy, two very useful and artfully designed products. According to Rael Dornfest, these services will become Twitter’s IP and will go offline on December 8, 2008. I’m sure Matt is weeping into his Wheaties this morning, while Rich bangs his head off his keyboard.
They both loved Sandy, in case you’re wondering.
Although I never used her, erm it, much, Sandy’s elegant design and “just works” mentality always appealed to me. Probably the most significant piece of this acquisition is Rael himself.
I’ve not met Rael, a fellow-Portlander, but his chops can only add value to Twitter’s development team. I’m a big proponent of Twitter bots and using non-web interfaces to do stuff, and one thing I’ve always liked about Twitter is its API, which opens up a world of clients as heavy or light as you like.
Twitter’s value is in the network, which is why, even when Twitter was down more than up, I didn’t jump onto any of the clones that materialized. Imagine what Rael (and Sandy) could do to make Twitter even more useful.
From what everyone is saying about the failed Facebook-Twitter deal, there were issues with Facebook’s valuation; Facebook offered its stock as the bulk of the deal, and Twitter questioned the $15 billion valuation established by Microsoft’s investment in October 2007.
Valuation and revenue aside, Kara Swisher cited a source with what may be the prevailing wisdom (used loosely) at Twitter:
“It’s more about timing,” said one person familiar with Twitter’s motivations. “There is a strong feeling that there is still an opportunity–even with the economic downturn–to blow this thing out.”
I tend to agree, and this is much more interesting for those of us on the outside observing, especially in light of the Values of n acquisition. Social networking is maturing rapidly, whereas what Twitter does (I suppose it’s called micro-blogging) is still in its infancy.
Facebook has done a better job of what MySpace and Friendster did first. Twitter was first.
Twitter is still pretty small, in terms of network size, with six million registered users, but year-over-year, new user registrations were up 600% this October over October 2007.
Revenue models aside, I understand Twitter’s desire to see where they can go. Twitter has loads of promise that I hope to see realized.
What do you think? Sound off in comments.
