Twitter has acquired the website and photo archive of Twitpic, a photo sharing site that said it was to close down on the back of a legal request from Twitter themselves.

Twitpic's Noah Everett wrote that they "weren’t able to find a way to keep Twitpic independent. However, 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. Twitter shares our goal of protecting our users and this data."

Users will no longer be able to upload photos to Twitpic, but 'for the time being' they will be able to access, download and delete existing content. The Android and iOS apps have been removed from app stores.

Twitpic has proven one of the most popular photo sharing applications for Twitter, with their own Twitter account enjoying more than 8.88m followers.

Despite the site's popularity, however, Twitpic announced in September that it was to close down.

In a blog post, Noah Everett explained that "a few weeks ago Twitter contacted our legal demanding that we abandon our trademark application or risk losing access to their API. This came as a shock to us since Twitpic has been around since early 2008, and our trademark application has been in the USPTO since 2009."

"Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours. Therefore, we have decided to shut down Twitpic," he added.

Twitter clarified that they were disappointed to see the site considering shutting down, with a spokesperson telling Business Insider that they "encourage developers to build on top of the Twitter service, as Twitpic has done for years, and we made it clear that they could operate using the Twitpic name. Of course, we also have to protect our brand, and that includes trademarks tied to the brand."

The site was initially scheduled to close down in September, but later announced it would stay operational. However, that was followed by a further announcement that the site would instead close on October 25th, as "agreeable terms could not be met" with potential acquirers. The Twitter deal to secure the site's data was announced yesterday - the planned closure date.