Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has been surrounded by rumors since the company’s IPO just over a week ago. The rumors have concentrated on two topics: the firm’s disastrous IPO and acquisitions the company may try to make with all of the new money floating around Menlo Park.
Here we’re looking at the second type of story. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) may be ready to acquire start up Face.com for $100 million. I know you’re thinking that that’s a pittance for the company that acquired Instagram in its pre IPO days for $1 billion but it is still not a sum to be laughed at.
The rumors come today from an Israeli news publication Calcalist. Face.com is an Israeli company that has pioneered a facial recognition technology already used by the social networking giant. The company has long been linked with an acquisition by Facebook and so it is no surprise it has popped up once again the the heady post IPO deal making atmosphere.
The firm was founded in 2007 and currently has 20 employees. According to the Israeli source the firm has only received around $5.3 million in funding so far. The company maintains headquarters in both Tel-Aviv and Palo Alto in California. Its business would add talent that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) would look for if rumors of the firm’s strategy going ahead are to be believed.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) expanding beyond the world’s most popular social network has often been rumored but has never come to pass in any meaningful sense. Rumors often pointed to the creation of a propriety mobile operating system directly competing with the Goolge Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS systems. The social network has become a platform for video watching and gaming in recent years. Such a move would not be beyond the bounds of possibility.
One thing is clear. Now that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is a publicly traded company it needs to grow and it needs to grow quickly. The firm’s advertisement revenue may not increase enough in the coming years to bring that to pass and continue to justify a high share price.
The firm may need to expand and the key acquisitions it will make in the coming months after its IPO will be the most telling information in describing the companies strategy for the future.
Whether or not the firm goes where everybody expects it to or grows into another sector entirely one thing is certain. The company will grow.
