Twitter acquires SMS service provider Cloudhopper

Twitter announced an agreement to purchase messaging infrastructure provider Cloudhopper, its second mobile acquisition this month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cloudhopper powers SMS campaigns in the North American, European and African markets--according to Twitter, the acquisition enables the microblogging giant to connect directly to mobile operator networks across the globe, adding it now processes almost a billion SMS-based tweets per month. Cloudhopper founder Joe Lauer and director of carrier integration Kristin Kanaar will both join the Twitter team.

The Cloudhopper deal follows on the heels of Twitter's announcement it will acquire Atebits, developer of the Tweetie client for iPhone, renaming the app Twitter for iPhone. Developers have expressed concern over the deal, fearing Twitter will now build more applications in-house or purchase services that bolster its overall vision, in the process making outside apps obsolete. "When we did the research we found we were really under-serving our users," explained Twitter CEO Evan Williams. "We had to have a core experience on major (mobile) platforms just like we have to have one on the web."

For more on the Cloudhopper acquisition:
- read this Twitter Blog entry

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