Facebook buys face recognition firm Face.com

18 Jun 2012

Facebook has concluded its acquisition of Israel-based facial recognition firm Face.com for an estimated US$80m to US$100m. Face.com’s KLIK technology allows users to identify their friends in images online and tag them.

Rumours of the acquisition emerged in recent weeks but according to All Things Digital Face.com’s acquisition has been confirmed by Facebook.

“People who use Facebook enjoy sharing photos and memories with their friends,” the report said.

“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-house.”

The acquisition is expected to be concluded in the coming weeks. It is understood to be a complete acquisition, which means people and IP will now join Facebook.

The Tel Aviv start-up has so far raised US$5.3m in venture capital funding from Rhodium and Yandex.

The company has also developed a mobile app version of KLIK that lets iPhone users take pictures and tag their friends automatically.

The app has been downloaded 100,000 times.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com