Facebook has acquired Face.com, the company that powers Facebook’s Photo Finder and Photo Tagger apps, in a deal press reports value at up to $100 million.
Facebook issued a statement that implied it wanted the Face.com talent as much as it wanted the existing technology. “This transaction simply brings a world-class team and a longtime technology vendor in house,” Facebook said.
Face.com co-founder and CEO Gil Hirsch furthered that suggestion when he blogged that becoming part of Facebook will give him and his team “more opportunities to build amazing products” that will be used by lots of people.
“Our mission is and has always been to find new and exciting ways to make face recognition a fun, engaging part of people’s lives, and incorporate remarkable technology into everyday consumer products,” Hirsch wrote.
Face.com has raised $5.8 million since it was founded in 2007 by Hirsch, chief technology officer Yaniv Taigman, chairman Moti Shniberg, and director Eden Shochat. Its largest investor is Russian search engine Yandex, which invested $4.3 million in September 2011.
Related links:
Face.com blog – Awesome News-Facebook Acquires Face.com
Mercury News – Facebook acquires Face.com, stock continues to rise
Los Angeles Times – Facebook completes rumored acquisition of Face.com
Globes [Israel] – Facebook acquires Face.com for $100m
TechCrunch – Facebook Scoops Up Face.com For $55-60M To Bolster Its Facial Recognition Tech
