Facebook has purchased Face.com, a startup that develops facial recognition technology for mobile devices. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the purchase could give Facebook a way to introduce new photo-sharing capabilities.
Face.com announced the acquisition on its site this morning:
We love building products, and like our friends at Facebook, we think that mobile is a critical part of people’s lives as they both create and consume content, and share content with their social graph. By working with Facebook directly, and joining their team, we’ll have more opportunities to build amazing products that will be employed by consumers – that’s all we’ve ever wanted to do. 🙂
The newly-public Facebook has shown interest in purchasing smaller, photography-based startups, purchasing Instagram in April for a staggering $ 1 billion.
GigaOm’s Bobbie Johnson wrote last month about the likelihood of post-IPO acquisitions by Facebook, as well as the speculated role of the Russian search engine Yandex in the then-predicted Face.com purchase.
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