• by Steve Smith  @popeyesm, January 29, 2013

Micro-blog Twitter has acquired the year-old startup Crashlytics, a crash detection tool used by a number of iOS app brands, including Twitter itself, Kayak, Yelp, Walmart and Groupon. The company helps developers troubleshoot and find errant code in their apps.

Crashlytics works with a number of companies that use Twitter posting and login connectivity but also may provide some competing services like local mobile advertising, offers and search. But Crashlytics assures customers in a company blog post that it will continue to serve its clients.

Founders Jeff Siebert and Wayne Chang write: “With today's announcement, much will remain the same. Development of Crashlytics will continue unabated and we remain dedicated to working with all of our customers -- current and new, big and small -- to deliver the key app performance insights they need.” They also say that like Twitter they “share a passion for innovating on mobile and building world-class applications.”

The acquisition gives Twitter a revenue stream coming from app development tools. But it also puts the company in direct contact with many major brands using apps and potentially tying into the Twitter ecosystem.