This $55 to $60 million purchase will improve its facial recognition technology.
Following several weeks of speculating, Facebook news finally shows that Face.com, an Israeli facial recognition technology, has been acquired.
Though rumors initially suggested that it was purchased for $100 million, that number has since fallen.
It is now more likely that the company was bought out for somewhere between $55 million and $60 million, and that this amount was a combination of cash and stock. The precise value of the purchase therefore depends on the stock of the social networking giant.
It has also been made clear that this deal is not a situation of aqui-hire, as Facebook news is indicating that the tech and advancements of Face.com will be integrated into mobile, as well. Many are hopeful that this will finally allow the site’s users to be able to enjoy photo tagging options with their smartphones.
Since the specialty of Face.com is facial recognition, this may mean that smartphone users might be able to upload on the go.
It could also mean that they will automatically receive tagging suggestions for the faces in the image, and allow those tags to be confirmed with a single tap or click. This is very important for the social network at the moment, as there are currently a massive number of images being posted that are remaining untagged because mobile devices were used to add them.
This may not seem like much of an issue, but it is actually leading to thousands – if not millions – of missed opportunities for engagement as users who are tagged receive notification that this has occurred and will likely visit to check out this Facebook news. Tags are also beneficial for helping the social network to understand the relevance of an image to the users and their friends, so that it can be properly added to the newsfeeds of the proper individuals.
Face.com has recently blogged about the acquisition and gave its applause to the third party developers, saying that “We love you guys, and the plan is to continue to support our developer community.” Many wonder if the next Facebook news of this type will be that an API will be created or that app developers will otherwise be able to build this technology in, so that users will be able to enjoy its integration for sharing content in return.
