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Twitter acquires, shuts down Slack rival Quill

Twitter aims to leverage the deal to improve its own direct-messaging functionality.

Attila Tomaschek
Attila is a Staff Writer for CNET, covering software, apps and services with a focus on virtual private networks. He is an advocate for digital privacy and has been quoted in online publications like Computer Weekly, The Guardian, BBC News, HuffPost, Wired and TechRepublic. When not tapping away on his laptop, Attila enjoys spending time with his family, reading and collecting guitars.
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Attila Tomaschek
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The terms of Twitter's Quill acquisition haven't been disclosed.

James Martin/CNET

Twitter has acquired Quill, a Slack rival in the business-focused messaging space, the companies said on Tuesday. The specific terms of the deal weren't disclosed. 

"Together with Twitter, we will continue to pursue our original goal -- to make online communication more thoughtful, and more effective, for everyone," Quill said in the release. As part of the acquisition, Quill will cease operations and users will have until Dec. 11 to export their message history before the service shuts down and deletes all the data from its servers.

The acquisition comes amid big changes at Twitter. Last week, Jack Dorsey stepped down as chief executive of the social network and handed the reins to new Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.

The Quill team will help accelerate Twitter's work on direct messages, making them a more "useful & expressive" way for people to have conversations, Twitter's Nick Caldwell said in a tweet Tuesday.