Facebook's acquisition spree continued this week, this time with a big exit for another Israeli startup. Face.com, an Israeli startup developing facial recognition technologies, announced last night that Facebook has purchased the company. The financial details of the deal have not been published yet, but high-tech analysts estimate that the social media giant shelled out between $80 million and $100 million to purchase the startup. Face.com was founded in 2007 with its main objective the development of technology that detects faces in photographs. Facebook has used the technology in its photo-tagging feature. "People who use Facebook enjoy sharing photos and memories with their friends, and Face.com's technology has helped to provide the best photo experience," Facebook said in a prepared statement quoted by CNN on Monday. "This transaction simply brings a world-class team and a long-time technology vendor in house." Investors in the Israeli startup included some notable names in the high-tech industry, including Yaniv Golan, who sold his company, Yedda, to AOL; and Daniel Recanati's Rhodium Ventures. In 2010, popular Russian search engine Yandex also invested in Face.com, CNN reported that while Facebook is known for doing "acqui-hires," taking talented staff from other companies and then shutting down their services, a source close to Facebook assured that Face.com's technology "will remain intact." Face.com's development team is expected to stay with the company, CNN said. "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," Face.com CEO Gil Hirsch wrote on the company's blog on Monday.
