Twitter Said to Have Considered Buying Mobile Photo App Camera+
Soon after Facebook agreed to pay $1 billion for Instagram, social networking rival Twitter considered acquiring a mobile photo-sharing application called Camera+, two people with knowledge of the negotiations said.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook's confirmed $1 billion agreement to buy Instagram reset the market for mobile photo apps overnight, and this Bloomberg report lands squarely in its shadow — with two sources saying Twitter weighed acquiring Camera+ as a response. The timing matters: Facebook was preparing its IPO roadshow in early May 2012, so its boldest mobile purchase came weeks before going public.
The pickup pattern shows how far the story traveled — CNET, Business Insider, and AllTwitter all ran versions on or about May 1 — because it read as evidence that the Instagram price had turned every indie photo app into potential acquisition currency. Neither Twitter nor Camera+'s developers have confirmed talks; both outlets attribute the report to unnamed sources, so the fact here is that Twitter was reported to be looking, not that a deal was near.
First-order effects
- Camera+'s developer suddenly holds negotiating leverage: a rumored suitor of Twitter's size lifts the app's profile and its asking price without a term sheet ever surfacing.
- Twitter's photo capability gap becomes explicit — having watched Facebook buy the category leader, its own built-in photo sharing looks underpowered against Instagram-class products.
Second-order effects
- Every small photo-app team in the App Store can now anchor valuation conversations to Instagram's $1 billion, inflating prices for acquirers whether or not they are Twitter.
- Facebook's rivals face pressure to respond in kind before its IPO locks in the narrative that it owns mobile photos — defensive M&A becomes cheaper than building a credible camera product in-house.
Third-order effects
- If platform rivalry rather than revenue drives deals, independent mobile apps get priced as strategic assets, shifting the App Store economy toward acquisition exits over standalone businesses.
- Social networks consolidate around owning media capture — the company that controls the photo moment controls the feed, pushing Twitter and peers toward repeated photo-feature acquisitions and launches.
The trend: Consumer-social M&A is being repriced around mobile photo engagement, with platform competition rather than app revenue setting deal values.