Facebook buys Strobe to shore up smartphone offerings

New York:With an aim to expand its serviceson smartphones, social networking giant Facebook has acquiredmobile application developer Strobe for an undisclosed amount.

Strobe develops technology which help developers createand distribute applications that work on devices likesmartphones and tablet PCs.The deal will help Facebook, which has over 800 millionuser globally, to further shore up its offerings on mobiledevices.

[caption id="attachment_127576" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="The US-based Strobe website lists 15 employees includingmanagement, while Facebook has more than 3,000 employees.AFP Photo"][/caption]

"We are happy to announce that, as of this week, theStrobe team is joining Facebook," Strobe Founder and CEOCharles Jolley said in a blog post.However, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.Some reports suggested that the Strobe acquisition was atalent hire, as Facebook was mainly interested in thecompany's founder Charles Jolley.

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He is also the creator of the SproutCore open sourceframework. Before founding Strobe, Charles was responsible formobile application development at technology giant Apple Inc."Now we are joining the talented people at Facebook tohelp develop innovative mobile experiences for their usersaround the world," Jolley added.

For now, the Strobe service would continue to be available to existing users in its existing beta form andSproutCore would continue as an independent project.The US-based Strobe website lists 15 employees includingmanagement, while Facebook has more than 3,000 employees.

PTI