History of Facebook Acquisitions

facebook History of Facebook's Acquisitions Acquisition Timeline Born on February 4, 2004 Hometown – Cambridge, Massachusetts Parent – Mark Zuckerberg Original Name – thefacebook Facebook's initial acquisitions... Parakey - undisclosed - Facebook's first acquisition, this small web startup was purchased for an undisclosed sum. friendfeed July 19, 2007 It was founded by Mozilla Firefox contributors to create a web-based FriendFeed $47,500,000 operating system and improve media transfer between PCs and the Internet. FriendFeed was a social media feed aggregator with many features that Facebook copied, including the Like button and the News Feed. August 10, 2009 "Facebook buys Parakey". Gigaom. 2007-07-19. In doing so, Facebook also acquired their team including former Google employees responsible for creating early versions of AdSense and Gmail. "Facebook Acquires FriendFeed". TechCrunch. 2009-08-10. It Consolidating and improving its website. Octazen Solutions - undisclosed - February 19, 2010 Octazen Solutions created scripts to import names from contact lists and invite users to other services like email providers and social networks. Facebook bought this company so users could easily find and add their friends from across the internet. Octazen: What The Heck Did Facebook Just Buy Exactly, And Why?". TechCrunch. 2010-02-19. Divvyshot - undisclosed - March 2, 2010 This group-sharing photo site integrated with Facebook so users could seamlessly share photos from the mobile app. "Facebook Buys Up Divvyshot To Make Facebook Photos Even Better". TechCrunch. 2010-04-02. Friendster $50,000,000 predecessor competing social network Friendster owned many valuable patents related to the social networking Facebook and May 13, 2010 space. chailabs Facebook paid $50 million to acquire a suite of patents. This was also a defensive strategy to avoid potential lawsuits intellectual property. for infringement of Chai Labs $10,000,000 "The Cost Of FriendFeed: Roughly $50 Million In Cash and Stock". TechCrunch. Facebok took over Chai Labs mainly to acquire talent, including Gokul Rajaram, the "godfather" of Google AdSense, in order to ramp up Facebook's advertising revenue stream. 2009-08-10. August 15, 2010 computer engineering Rajaram was later poached from Facebook by mobile POS company Square. Facebook Acquires Chai Labs, Gains "Godfather of Google Adsense". PCMag. 2010-08-15. Hot Potato Hot Potato - $10,000,000 August 20, 2010 Facebook acquired primarily to get access to their talented team engineers. Hot Potato of software Hot Potato integrated the ability to check-in at locations and improed status FB.com $8,500,000 Facebook's update technology. November 15, 2010 "Facebook acquires Hot Potato". Mashable. 2010-08-20. Previously, this domain name was owned by the American Farm Bureau Federation. Facebook purchased the domain name from them for a reported $8.5 million. "Facebook Paid Farm Bureau $8.5 Million To Acquire Fb.com". TechCrunch. 2011-01-11. Developing Facebook's mobile technology. rel8tion rel8tion - undisclosed - January 25, 2011 Acquired after only nine months of operation, rel8tion gave Facebook hyper-local advertising to bolster revenue from its mobile app while enhancing user experience based on location. access to mobile Beluga - undisclosed - "Facebook Acquires Mobile Advertising Company Out of Stealth Mode". AlIThingsD. 2011-01-25. Beluga is the predecessor to Facebook's mobile messaging app, which included group messaging. March 1, 2011 In the acquisition, Facebook also gained more highly-skilled and experienced ex-Google employees. "Facebook Acquires Group Messaging Service Beluga In A Talent AND Technology Deal". TechCrunch. 2011-03-01. Snaptu ~ $70,000,000 Smartphone app developer Snaptu had 20 million registered accounts before Facebook acquired it. March 20, 2011 The Israeli company was acquired to redesign Facebook's mobile app from the ground up and deploy it, including versions used today. "Confirmed: Facebook Acquires Snaptu (For An Estimated $60 - $70 Million)". TechCrunch. 2011-03-20. Gaining the world's biggest repository of online photos. Instagram $1,000,000,000 Instagram was acquired for $1 billion, Facebook's largest acquisi- tion at the time. April 9, 2012 Instagram's photo-sharing social network still operates under its own brand and standalone app, although many features (including photo sharing) have been integrated with Facebook itself. Face.com $100,000,000 "Why Instagram Might Be The Best Internet Acquisition Ever". Forbes. 2012-10-12. June 18, 2012 This Israeli company worked on cutting-edge software. facial recognition Users could upload photos and see automatically generated suggestions for who that person might be. "Awesome News - Facebook Acquires Face.com". Face.com. 2012-06-18. Closing the gaps in its advertising model. Atlas Advertiser Suite $100,000,000 February 28, 2013 Acquired from Microsoft for just under $100 million, Atlas helped Facebook advertisers understand their ROI from paid ads. "Facebook Confirms It Will Acquire Atlas Onavo N $175,000,000 Advertiser Suite From Microsoft To Close The Ad Spend Loop". Techcrunch, 2013-02-28. Facebook bought Onavo for its consumer and enterprise mobile analytics software. October 13, 2013 The deal also gave Facebook Onavo's office space, giving them a foothold in tech-savvy Tel Aviv. "Facebook Buys Mobile Data Analytics Company Onavo, Reportedly For Up To $200M.. And (Finally?) Gets Its Office In Israel". "TechCrunch". 2013-10-14. Big, bold acquisitions into uncharted territory. WhatsApp $19,000,000,000 Facebook's largest acquisition to date, WhatsApp was (and still is) the most popular free mobile messaging app worldwide, reaching half a billion people each month. February 19, 2014 Oculus Although some criticized Facebook for overpaying for a free service, it gained access to a large new user base, especially overseas. Oculus VR $2,000,000,000 "Facebook to Acquire WhatsApp". Facebook. 2014-01-19. Facebook acquired Oculus, a virtual reality tech ocompany, and its flagship product Oculus Rift. March 25, 2014 According to Zuckerberg, the goal is to first develop immersive VR gaming and then expand to include all sorts of virtual experiences, including social networking. "Facebook acquires Oculus VR". Facebook. 2014-03-25. Ascenta $20,000,000 March 27, 2014 This UK-based company designs and builds high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS). The goal is to bring Internet to developing countries by beaming service from UAVS flying high in the sky. Pebbles Interfaces "Facebook to Acquire Ascenta". Facebook. 2014-03-14. Pebbles ~ $60,000,000 July 16, 2015 Pebbles, developed hardware and software for 3D gesture interaction. an Israeli company, Facebook added them to their hardware engineering and computer vision teams to help develop and advance virtual reality, tracking, and human-computer interactions. "Facebook's Oculus to Pay About $60 Million for Gesture-Control Firm Pebbles". Wall Street Journal. 2015-07-16. WebpageFX