Twitter comes to Twitpic’s rescue at the last second

If you’ve missed the recent Twitpic hullabaloo, the third-party Twitter image host, one of the biggest in operation, has been threatened with closure since April, when Twitter challenged it with a trademark complaint. First it was shutting, then it wasn’t, and now it finally is, although Twitter has agreed to keep its archives online for the time being.

Twitter has acquired Twitpic’s website and photo archive. “I’m happy to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to give them the Twitpic domain and photo archive, thus keeping the photos and links alive for the time being,” Twitpic creator Noah Everett announced Saturday in a blog post. “Twitter shares our goal of protecting our users and this data.” This resolution, which is more than a little ironic, ends one of the most melodramatic startup closures in recent memory.