Facebook Now Owns Face.com

After acquiring photo sharing and processing app Instagram more than two months ago, Facebook has now bought out face recognition start-up, Face.com. Several sources report that Facebook paid $80 million to $100 million to acquire Face.com, although fresher reports from people more familiar with the deal point to a lower acquisition price of $55 million to $60 million. Whether Facebook paid a million dollars or less to acquire Face.com, what is clearer is that the social network made a full acquisition – which means Facebook now owns the start-up’s tools and technologies, including its mobile expertise and pool of talents.

Facebook and Face.com has not released any details as to the deal and the acquisition price, although the facial recognition company has published news about the buyout over at their site. In a post published June 18^th, the Face.com team expressed excitement over “working with Facebook directly”, adding that the deal will open more opportunities for the team to build exciting new products that consumers will be able to use.

With Face.com’s mobile facial recognition technologies, it is highly expected for Facebook to finally offer tagging options to mobile-uploaded photos. More users are uploading photos through their iPhones and Android smart phones, although they are unable to tag these photos. And with Facebook’s photo app Camera, – which allows FB users to take and upload photos directly to the site – acquiring Face.com is such a timely affair.

Speaking over at the Face.com blog, CEO Gil Hirsch and the rest of his team has this to say about the deal: “Our mission has and has always been to find new and exciting ways to make face recognition a fun, engaging part of people’s lives… We love building products, and like our friends at Facebook, we think that mobile is a critical part of people’s lives as they both create and consume content, and share content with their social graph.”

A spokesperson for Facebook released statement to AllThingsD about the acquisition, saying, “People who use Facebook enjoy sharing photos and memories with their friends. Face.com’s technology has helped to provide the best photo experience. This transaction simply brings a world-class team and a long-time technology vendor in the house.”