Facebook Buys Mobile Discovery Service Glancee
Facebook has scooped up another startup in its path toward mobile dominance. This time, it’s Glancee, an ambient location-based service that competes with Highlight.
From Glancee’s home page:
“We started Glancee in 2010 with the goal of bringing together the best of your physical and digital worlds. We wanted to make it easy to discover the hidden connections around you, and to meet interesting people. Since then Glancee has connected thousands of people, empowering serendipity and pioneering social discovery.
“We are therefore very excited to announce that Facebook has acquired Glancee and that we have joined the team in Menlo Park to build great products for over 900 million Facebook users. We’ve had such a blast connecting people through Glancee, and we truly thank our users for being a part of the Glancee community.”
Less than a month ago, Facebook acquired the mobile-based photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion, and the world’s largest social network has expressed its sights are set on mobile.
Glancee fits the bill. It was one of the hot passive location startups at SXSW this year, along with Highlight and Sonar.
Facebook’s just weeks away from an initial public offering. The company announced its shares would be priced at $28 to $35, putting the company at a valuation of $85 billion and $95 billion. Facebook did not disclose the terms of the Glancee acquisition.
How do you think Glancee’s service might change Facebook on mobile? Push notifications when you’re near friends? Would you like Facebook to be able to do that? Tell us in the comments.
via Mashable.com
Somewhat odd that Facebook has initiated the “rubber chicken” circuit to flog their IPO based on the “assets” and forward cash flow they anticipate, while at the same time they are using cash on their balance sheet to buy these companies. Who knows waht the company will look like on IPO day, but not an issue as investors are looking for a fast moving, forward thinking company. Obviously to be treated as a “trade” rather than an “investment”.
The scary issue here is with the “geo-tagging” of device owner and friends. Wouldn’t the Government love to have such information, but realize it violates certain Amendments.
Wouldn’t it be odd if the service was instituted for the “publically traded” Facebook, then the government came in and aquired Facebook (ala AIG, GM etc) and latched onto the geo-tag feature as a collateral benefit?
You’re probably trying to geo-tag me right now. Ha ha. I’m an anarchist.
The Government has no place in the bedrooms of it’s citizens, and neither does a public or private business.