14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is building up a huge team of talented people and, if it can't get them to join, it simply buys the entire company, like it just did with Sofa, a software design company from Amsterdam.
Sofa has announced that the entire team will be moving to Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto and also said that its existing products will be maintained, but will not be part of the company anymore.
"We’re excited to announce today that Facebook has acquired the Sofa team. When we started Sofa in 2006, we set out to make friendly, useful and enjoyable products that matter to people," Sofa announced on its blog.
"We expected to keep working at Sofa forever. But after Facebook first made contact, we were quickly convinced to join forces," it said.
"Facebook is full of talent and has a great culture. We feel challenged and at home at the same time, and can really get things done there. But equally important, we believe that at Facebook, we will be making a real difference to a lot of people’s lives," it explained.
Sofa is known for doing design work for other companies, icons for Mozilla for example, but also for some of its own applications. Kaleidoscope and Versions, a couple of Mac apps, were not acquired by Facebook and Sofa is looking for a third party to continue to support them.
For Checkout, Enstore, the other two applications created by Sofa, the path is clearer since they were created in partnership with another company and Sofa is working on ensuring they have a future.
There's no word on what Sofa will be doing at Facebook, but the social network could put the team to good use, either with its design department or through various other parts of the company.