Mar 21, 2011 10:15 GMT  ·  By

Facebook has acquired Israeli company Snaptu, a maker of mobile apps for standard or feature phones. Snaptu has created the Facebook for Feature Phones app in collaboration with Facebook and its success was enough to convince the social network to acquire the app maker.

There are no official financial details, but some rumors say the deal is in the $60 million to $70 million range. The company has raised over $6 million from venture capital firms so far.

"The Snaptu team is excited to announce today that we recently agreed to be acquired by Facebook," Snaptu announced.

"We... decided that working as part of the Facebook team offered the best opportunity to keep accelerating the pace of our product development. And joining Facebook means we can make an even bigger impact on the world," it added.

Snaptu has apps that enables those using feature phones, pretty much all of the world, to connect to online services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Picasa and so on.

It partnered with Facebook for its feature phone client which now works on more than 2,500 devices. Facebook has been looking to expand its service and make it available on any device and in any form. Mobile clients are a big part of this move.

At the same time, Facebook wants to maintain the look and feel across apps and devices. The social network was pleased with Snaptu's work, it seems, and decided to acquire it, presumably to continue to create feature phone apps.

As Facebook continues to grow around the world, it needs tool to expand in developing countries where internet access is limited and smartphones are non-existent. In many places, phones greatly outnumber computers.

"The acquisition is expected to close within a few weeks. We’ll have more updates on Snaptu soon, and we’ll be working hard to offer a richer and more advanced Facebook app on virtually every mobile phone," Snaptu explained.