Twitter Inc (TWTR) Buys Cover

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Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) reaffirmed its position as a mobile-first company with its decision to acquire Cover, an Android lock screen app maker.

Cover built a replacement for the default lock screen of Android to allow users to easily access apps on their smartphone.

Cover & Twitter shares vision

The acquisition was announced by Todd Jackson, Gordon Luk, and Edward Ho, co-founders of Cover in a blog post on Monday. According to them, “It’s been an incredible journey; a journey that we’re excited to announce is taking a turn today as we bring the Cover team to Twitter to take these ideas even further.”

Cover’s co-founders stated that Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) believes that Android has incredible potential and shares their vision that “smartphone can be a lot smarter, more useful, and more contextual…Together we’re going to make that happen. We’ll be building upon a lot of what makes Cover great, and we’re thrilled to create something even better at Twitter,” wrote Jackson, Luk and Ho.

According to them, Cover will remain available in the Play Store while focusing their attention on their work at Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). The added, “If that changes down the road, we’ll provide another update here.”

The co-founders of Cover did not provide any specific detail regarding the terms of the acquisition. It is also unclear how Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) will incorporate Cover in its strategy.

Acquisition strengthens mobile first approach

Observers in the technology industry believed that the deal will strengthen the mobile first approach of the microblogging company.

More than 75% of the members of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) access its service using their smartphones and tablets. Acquiring Cover will enable Twitter to remain in front of the lock screen. The microblogging company generates more revenue from mobile devices than desktop.

Cover has obtained hundreds of thousands of users since its launch in October last year. The company received $1.7 million funding from First Round Capital, Harrison Metal, Max Levchin, Scott Banister, Charlie Cheever, Keith Rabois, Dave Girouard and Alex Franz.

The shares of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) are trading at $43.52 per share, up by more than 1% at the time of this writing around 1:36 in the afternoon in New York.

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