Instagram y WhatsApp han sido las acquisitions más conocidas por parte de Facebook en los últimos años. Pero no han sido las únicas. En esta entrada hemos querido analizar la purchase of companies The most recent and most relevant from the company led by Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook buyout

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 and since then he hasn't stopped getting his wallet out. His first acquisition came in 2007 with the purchase of Parakey and his latest was Grokstyle last February, which we analyse below.

In the meantime, Facebook has come to confirm a total of 77 operations of purchase of companies. The amounts are only known for 14 of them, amounting to a staggering total of 22,896 million. Sus dos acquisitions más famosas han sido WhatsApp por 19.000 millones de dólares e Instagram por 1.010,74 millones.

From our area of corporate finance, we wanted to see what kind of companies Facebook is acquiring recently and the reasons why it has made these purchases. Its last 5 operations have been the following:

1. Grokstyle

Founded in San Francisco in 2015, Grokstyle is developing a application that automatically identifies furniture and home décor from almost any image or angle. Ikea, for example, uses this technology in its mobile app. It is very simple to use; users take a picture of a piece of furniture and the app shows them similar products that they can buy online.

Facebook announced on 8 February 2019 the purchase of Grokstyle for an undisclosed amount by Mark Zuckerberg's company.

This AI could be used by Facebook to bolster its own efforts in the field. The application makes sense for Facebook Marketplace, the company's service for buying and selling items from other users on its social network.

2. Dreambit

Dreambit (Bakersfield, California) is a customised image search engine that goes beyond the typical filters. They offer the possibility of exploring a wide variety of styles after taking a photo or selfie. In other words, a person with curly hair can instantly see what they would look like with completely straight hair, for example.

Facebook acquired the company on 28 November 2018 to apply this advanced imaging software to its social network.

Eli Shlizerman and Ira Kemelmacher are the founders of this search engine. Eli brings expertise in neural networks and optimisation of dynamic systems, while Ira is a world expert in face and 3D modelling. Their expertise will be applied to neural network applications for computational photography, face processing, vision and graphics.

3. Refdash

Fundada en 2016 en Mountain View, Refdash helps people find great companies to work for and speeds up the interview process. Users do a mock interview, rate themselves and then share their performance anonymously, matching companies and their skills. This software saves recruitment processes from being so costly.

The sale to Facebook was confirmed on 7 October 2018, for which the amounts involved are unknown. The main objective of this operation is to fueling its encroachment on LinkedIn's territory. The Refdash team could give it more experience in recruiting for technical roles, connecting highly skilled workers such as programmers to positions they need to fill.

4. Vidpresso

Vidpresso is a Utah-based company that seeks to achieve make live streams more interactive. These live streams allow users to display polls, comments and other elements of Twitter or Periscope, among others. Their long-term goal is to create broadcast-quality media that is easy for anyone to use, without spending large amounts of money on it.

On 14 August 2018 Facebook bought Vidpresso's team of seven people and technology, but not the company itself. The total amount of the deal was not made public. The goal of this acquisition was to equip content creators with the same tools to make videos for Facebook.

5 Redkix

Redkix is a company that provides tools to communicate more effectively through the combination of email with a more formal collaboration tool. Redkix received a $17 million round of funding two years ago, which has enabled the California start-up to take off.

Redkix is currently the Workplace or business communication service offered by Facebook. On 26 July 2018, Facebook bought Redkix, for which the amount is unknown.

«No todas las empresas están listas para simplemente cambiar de una mensajería de correo a otra, y Redkix permite a los usuarios trabajar en cualquier método que deseen, comunicándose sin problemas con la otra», dijo Alan Lepofsky, quien cubre la colaboración empresarial en Constellation Research.

In mid-2018, Facebook claimed that around 30,000 organisations were using the tool.