This whole ordeal seemed a little surreal since day one of the rumors, but earlier today, Twitter and TweetDeck finalized an agreement which would see Twitter take ownership of the popular multi-platform social media app. The price is reported to have been over $40 million in cash and stock.
Twitter has always had stand-offish relations with the many 3rd party applications which tap into its own service, heavily restricting the manner in which such apps can use and present Twitter feeds. TweetDeck, though, has become wildly popular for its integrated feed system, which combines Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz all into a customizable multi-pane user experience.
TweetDeck's Android app has also seen substantial success. The buyout by Twitter was a bit of a surprise after reports last month suggested UberMedia (which owns Twidroyd) was in talks to acquire TweetDeck. That deal never closed, apparently (we don't even know if it made it to the negotiation table, frankly.)
What does this mean for TweetDeck users? In the short-term, probably not much - TweetDeck should continue to be up and running on its various supported platforms for the foreseeable future. But, you can likely expect over time that Twitter will begin to integrate features from TweetDeck into its own applications and webpage - maybe even a multi-pane window system and, knock on wood, support for multiple accounts.
This is all coming way down the road, though. For now, Twitter and TweetDeck will probably remain the same relatively independent entities they are presently.