Twitter Acquires Cabana to Improve Third-Party Developer Tools

Twitter has acquired Cabana, a small company focused on creating mobile applications in HTML5.

Starting today, Cabana will be joining Twitter’s platform team, where it will be building tools “to help third-party developers create new experiences on Twitter,” according to a blog post.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but given that Cabana will be shutting down its mobile app development tools on Dec. 1, it sounds like Twitter was more interested in the team than the actual product. It’s worth noting that while HTML5 was once hyped as the way to solve fragmentation in mobile, the trend has shifted back toward native applications since they provide a better user experience — at least for now.

Cabana’s technology was used, in part, to turn Facebook fan pages into mobile apps. The San Francisco-based company’s list of investors includes First Round Capital and other high-profile angels, including Kevin Rose, Chris Sacca and Dave Morin. The Cabana co-founders are Reeve Thompson and Jeremy Gordon.

Twitter confirmed the acquisition and provided the following statement: “Reeve Thompson, Jeremy Gordon and their team have created a product that makes it easier for people to build rich mobile apps. At Twitter, they will join our platform team and build tools to help third-party developers create new experiences on Twitter.”

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