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Facebook to buy Snaptu

Tim Green
Facebook to buy Snaptu

Acquisition will strengthen social network's push into feature phone market.

The purchase consolidates a partnership between the two firms that began in January when Snaptu delivered a 'Facebook for Feature Phones' mobile application, designed to work on more than 2,500 different handset models.

Snaptu's technology overlays a user interface on non-smartphones that speeds up mobile browsing and links to popular sites.

The four-year-old company said in a blog note that the deal was expected to close within a few weeks.

Terms were not disclosed, but some news reports valued it at between $40m and $70m.

The Snaptu blog said: "We soon decided that working as part of the Facebook team offered the best opportunity to keep accelerating the pace of our product development.

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"And joining Facebook means we can make an even bigger impact on the world...we’ll be working hard to offer a richer and more advanced Facebook app on virtually every mobile phone."

Facebook said that by being part of the company, Snaptu’s team and technology would be able to deliver a better mobile experience on feature phones more quickly.

The move is further evidence that Facebook was entirely serious when it said that mobile is its top priority in 2011. It follows the announcement of partnerships with HTC and INQ on 'Facebook phones' last month.

Tags: facebook , user experience , snaptu , emerging markets , M&A , feature phones

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