Facebook Pushes Further into Mobile with Spool Acquisition

Facebook has acquired the talent behind internet startup Spool for an undisclosed sum. Spool is an app-based service allowing users to share content via mobile. In an unusual deal, the employees and IP of Spool will transfer to Facebook, and its apps will close, but Facebook will not acquire the company.

The San Francisco-based startup is the latest in a line of mobile acquisitions made by Facebook to strengthen its mobile capabilities. Facebook bought year-old startup Instagram for $1bn, prior to its ill-fated floatation, and has also purchased mobile gift card business Karma in the past year.

A Facebook spokesman says: "The Spool team has deep expertise in mobile software development and a passion for making content easy to consume. We’re excited for the team to join and accelerate their vision at Facebook.” 

Spool was founded by former Google manager Avichal Garg in 2010 to make sharing via mobile easier. The company was estimated to have six employees.

In a blog post, Garg says: "We started Spool to make content easy to consume on a mobile device. To accomplish this, we built some very sophisticated technology and developed a deep expertise in mobile software development.

We firmly believe that solving these problems will be increasingly important as the world accesses the Internet primarily through mobile devices."