Facebook has acquired the team behind Hot Studio, a design agency in the US, which will see “many” of its staff embedded in the social media firms product design, communication design, research, engineering, and content strategy teams.

Facebook isnt acquiring the company and its assets, but just the talent, in what some people with a predilection for ugly portmanteaus are calling an acquihire.

The Hot Studio team will help develop the social networks tools – with “simple” and “intuitive” apparently the watchwords, based on a blog post from Facebook confirming the move. As Facebook continues its transition to a more mobile-focused offering, these are both vital considerations.

“We began working with Hot Studio on a few projects several months ago. Immediately, we recognized the synergy between our teams and their remarkable talents,” said Margaret Stewart, director of design at Facebook. “Hot Studio has a 16-year history working with some of the world’s biggest and best brands. They have an intricate understanding of what businesses need and a flair for building tools and resources to help meet those needs. And this is what we’re bringing them here to do – build amazing tools that help the brands and businesses that use Facebook.”

#Comingsoon?

Meanwhile, Facebook is also rumoured to be working on incorporating the hashtag, as used on Twitter, into its service. 

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported that, while the feature isnt likely to be introduced immediately, it is on its way. The hashtag would be used to group similar conversations together – not dissimilar to what Facebook was trying to achieve with Graph Search, which it unveiled two months ago.

The feature isnt unique to Twitter, its worth noting – hashtags are also used on Instagram, which Facebook famously acquired for $1bn last April.