CNN purchased the largest Twitter account, CNNbrk (CNN Breaking News), with 959,011 followers at the time of this posting. The account was so far administered by James Cox.  

 

CNN did not give financial details about the transaction, probably because Twitter’s terms of use forbid the selling of Twitter accounts. This transaction comes amid a fierce competition between CNN and Ashton Kutcher to become the first Twitter account with 1 million followers. At the moment, the well known actor has about 941,749 followers and singer Britney Spears is in third place with 926,862 followers. 

 

"I found it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as what an entire media company can on Twitter," Kutcher said.

 

The challenge for the 1 million followers milestone was accepted by CNN Tuesday on the very popular TV show “Larry King Show.” 

 

After CNN announced it bought the CNNbrk account from James Cox, about 1 million Twitters visited the account including me. I just clicked follow. Before buying the account, a CNN spokesman sad that James Cox infringed on CNN’s trademark, but the company did not take the matter to court and instead collaborated with Cox. It is rumored that CNN paid a lot of money for the account. 

 

Ashton Kutcher said that if he would win the race, he would donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity for World Malaria Day. Furthermore, Electronic Arts joined the show and said it would put Kutcher’s 1 millionth follower in a future EA games.