9 Companies acquired and owned by Facebook

The Facebook Companies

Facebook started from the bottom — back in 2004 when it was known then as ‘The Facebook‘. Today the social networking company owns, operates, or have merged more than 9 companies it acquired over the years—to grow in assets. FBtutorial.com is reporting.

Companies acquired and owned by Facebook

Without further ado, highlighted below are 9 companies acquired and owned by Facebook. We also identified other technology companies confidentially acquired by Facebook for undisclosed amounts:

• Atlas (Atlas Solutions, LLC)

Atlas Solutions, a limited liability company, was founded in 2001, when ad serving was in its infancy, and has helped advertisers navigate the digital ecosystem ever since. Atlas pioneered Engagement Mapping in 2008, or what is now known industry-wide as multi-touch attribution.

In 2013, Atlas was purchased by Facebook and operates as a separate entity. Atlas is now in more than 24 global markets.

• Instagram LLC (portmanteau of “Instant Telegram”)

Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. The mobile app was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010.

Instagram was later acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock.

• Mobile Technologies Inc. (Jibbigo translator app)

Mobile Technologies, Inc. was a world leader in speech recognition and machine translation technology, until it was acquired by Facebook in 2013. The engineers behind Mobile Technologies had invented Jibbigo, a translator mobile application that caught the attention of Facebook. The engineers behind Jibbigo have now joined Facebook’s engineering team in Menlo Park, California; following the acquisition of their technology.

Voice technology has become an increasingly important way for people to navigate mobile devices and the web, and the acquired technology has helped Facebook to evolve their products to match that evolution. The acquisition is said to be an investment in Facebook’s long-term product roadmap.

• Onavo (Mobile Analytics)

Onavo, a mobile analytics company founded 2010, is the developer of the award-winning Onavo mobile utility apps. Millions of users around the world use Onavo’s mobile apps to take the worry out of using smartphones and tablets.

In October 2013, Onavo was acquired by Facebook for about $200 million, and is now a Facebook company based in Menlo Park, California.

• Parse (Cloud Application Platform for Developers)

Parse, a mobile-backend-as-a-service startup, was founded 2011 by a small group of seasoned Googlers and Y Combinator alums who got together to build a useful set of back-end tools for mobile developers. Parse is a cloud app platform that enables users to add a scalable and powerful backend to launch a full-featured app.

Parse was acquired by Facebook in April of 2013. Parse is today–Facebook’s answer to Android And iOS.

• Moves (Activity Diary App)

Moves is a mobile app developed by ProtoGeo Oy. The company was founded Jan 2012 in Helsinki, Finland, to develop a pioneering all-day activity diary for smartphones. The Moves app was launched in Jan 2013.

In April 2014, Facebook acquired the Moves App for an undisclosed amount, and the developers have joined the Facebook team in Menlo Park, California.

• Oculus (http://www.oculus.com/)

• LiveRail (http://www.liverail.com/)

• WhatsApp Inc. (http://www.whatsapp.com/)

WhatsApp, a personal real-time messaging mobile app with over 500 million users.

In 2014, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp for approximately $16 billion, including $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. The agreement also provides for an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest over four years subsequent to closing.

Other companies acquired by Facebook and also implemented their technologies, includes: FriendFeed ($47.5million), Face.com ($55m-$100million), HotStudio (undisclosed price), Parakey (undisclosed amount), Octazen (undisclosed amount), Friendster ($40million), SportStream (undisclosed price), ShareGrove (undisclosed amount).

What other (technology) companies will Facebook competitively buy in the coming years?

When Facebook acquires more companies in the near future, this post may be updated to reflect the new acquisitions. Otherwise, a new post will be published on FBtutorial.com — to announce such acquisitions.