Twitter Raids Design Firm Nclud for Talent and IP

Contrary to some reports circling the Internet Monday morning — including two apparently sterling sources — Twitter has not acquired the web design firm Nclud.

However, the microblogging network has purchased Nclud’s intellectual property for an undisclosed sum as well as hired its two co-founders to high level design roles at Twitter.

Nclud is a Washington, D.C., based design studio. Co-founder Martin Ringlein set startup and acquisition watchers a twitter with this Monday morning tweet:

Nclud co-founder Alex Giron also tweeted that the company had been acquired, which was reported by many news blogs. TechCrunch , The Next Web and others have since updated their stories.

Twitter spokesman Robert Weeks, however, told Mashable in email that “Twitter did not acquire nclud, the company, but we did acquire their IP.” Weeks also confirmed that “some members of the nclud team now work at Twitter.”

Weeks did not provide any more details on how many patents or other rights the IP and talent acquisition includes.

In another tweet sent later Monday morning from Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, Ringlein said he was already filling out paperwork for his new role. Ringlein’s LinkedIn page lists his current position as Design Manager at Twitter. Giron tweeted that he will now “be leading design efforts @twitter in the international side of things.”

Nclud has completed projects for a number of high profile clients. The studio created iPhone apps for Mashable and Oracle, and redesigned the international public relations agency Ogilvy‘s website.

Giron also tweeted that the Nclud “brand lives on” and promised more details to come.

Already this year, Twitter has acquired the blogging platform Posterous, security startup Dasient and analytics company Hotspots.io. A recent report predicted its ad revenue will top $1 billion in 2014 — a faster rate of growth than previously projected.

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