- Image via CrunchBase
No one listens to me. You snooze you loose.
I obviously have no idea why FriendFeed took the FaceBook deal. I’m willing to bet that many of the smart people below are right.
What I do know:
Facebook has been stealing FriendFeed features for the past year.
Facebook will need better search. FriendFeed has the best search engine out there IMHO.
FriendFeed DOES NOT need the money. Paul could have continued to self fund the site and many investors would have easily lined up to throw their money behind such amazing talent. This leads me to believe as others have stated that they sold for some heavy amounts of equity shares.
(Update 1: TechCrunch has more details on the make up of the deal)
The big question is what happens to FriendFeed? My bet is that FriendFeed will become to Facebook what Summize has become to Twitter. (For those that may not know Summize was a Twitter search engine that is now http://search.twitter.com. aka the front page [if you're logged out])
(Update 2) As I think more about this it occurred to me that Paul and team are the guys behind Gmail. This means Facebook could build their own mail system to compete with MySpace mail that has yet to roll out beyond a few users. Either way, things just got interesting again at Facebook. Just when I was ready to write them off.
I’m sure this will be covered in depth for the rest of the week so instead of recapping all the smart thinking on the topic, here’s some links:
-
Facebook makes a play and acquires Friendfeed, a sharing and aggregation tool that helps people find out what their friends are doing. Read Friendfeed’s announcement, and Facebook’s blog post. A few months ago the Facebook and Twitter deal fell apart, and Facebook knows it must open its community to the open web –not just behind a login in order to benefit from generating revenues through advertising and search advertising.
-
FriendFeed Blog: FriendFeed accepts Facebook friend request
What does this mean for my FriendFeed account? FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being. We’re still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team. As usual, we will communicate openly about our plans as they develop — keep an eye on the FriendFeed News group for updates.
-
louisgray.com: Hi Facebook, It’s Me, FriendFeed. This Relationship? It’s Complicated.
So what’s happening to this Valley? Is it as dire a situation as it sometimes seems? Are we really going to end up with four mega-companies: FaceBook, Google, Microsoft and Apple? Because if Google or Microsoft can weasel their way into acquiring Twitter, that’s sure how it will seem. If the IPO market continues to be closed, and innovative companies can only knock on doors 1 through 4, that’s not a good thing.
-
Facebook Buys Sharing Service FriendFeed | paidContent
Facebook has purchased social sharing service FriendFeed. Financial terms of the deal were not released, although FriendFeed had raised just over $5 million in venture funding. Facebook has hinted in the past that it was interested in making an acquisition. In raising $200 million from Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies in late May, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the new cash opened the possibility of “strategic options.†And Facebook also reportedly made a bid for Twitter last fall.
-
Facebook Just Bought FriendFeed
Earlier today, rumors started to appear that FriendFeed had been acquired by Facebook. We now have confirmation that this is indeed true. Neither Facebook nor FriendFeed released any exact details about the acquisition, but we’ll keep this story updated as we learn more details about this acquisition. According to a post by Bret Taylor on the FriendFeed blog, FriendFeed will continue to operate normally for the time being while the two companies figure out the long-term plans.
-
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed (Updated)
Facebook has acquired FriendFeed, we’ve learned. We’re gathering details now. At this point details on the acquisition are still very sparse, but it’s clearly a good match. Over the last year or so, Facebook has “borrowed†quite a few of features that FriendFeed popularized, including the ‘Like’ feature and an emphasis on real-time news updates.
-
Friendfeed Should Become Facebook Labs - The Steve Rubel Lifestream
Facebook just got bought… * the best social search platform on the web, hands down * a site that has captured the heart and soul of many (not all) geeks, something they need to do to stay in the vanguard * an incredibly smart, talented team that will bring rapid innovation to Facebook and make it even stronger
-
First Interview After Acquisition With FriendFeed And Facebook
Details on the Facebook acquisition of Friendfeed story that we broke earlier today are still coming in. But we had a chance to talk with Friendfeed cofounder Bret Taylor (pictured right) and Facebook VP Products Chris Cox a few minutes ago to discuss the deal and the product integration plans going forward.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Facebook to acquire Friendfeed (venturebeat.com)
- Facebook Announces FriendFeed Acquisition (allfacebook.com)
- Friendfeed Acquired by Facebook (inquisitr.com)
- Facebook acquires FriendFeed (news.cnet.com)
- Breaking: FriendFeed Acquired by Facebook (insidefacebook.com)
- Facebook buys FriendFeed (thenextweb.com)
