Facebook Inc (FB) Makes a New Acquisition and Gives Guidance in Schools

Published on August 14, 2013 at 9:34 am by David Woodburn in News

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been overseeing a transformation of the social-networking company that he created. As more than 60 percent of the network’s population of 1 billion users moving to mobile platforms, the need to make Facebook available and efficient for those on the move has been a priority for Zuck and his company over the last few months, which has helped the company’s stock rebound from its low point last fall to getting back to within talking distance of the IPO price.

And speaking of talking, Facebook is taking a new step toward being on the lips of users, not just fingers.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is Ready for Its First Words

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has been pretty aggressive in its history of mergers and acquisitions of companies that increase the interactivity of users and collaboration. The latest trend, especially in mobile, is moving toward voice-activated commands. Facebook, to complement what it does with its social network, decided to go out and sign a deal to acquire a voice-recognition app maker called Mobile Technologies LLC of Pittsburgh, Pa., according to a story from Deborah Todd of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Mobile Technologies was a startup opened in 2001 by Alex Waibel, a computer-science professor at nearby Carnegie Mellon University, provides for cross-language chats and translation services that enable collaboration across a variety of languages; it was originally designed for educational settings, but is now expected to be expanded by Facebook. This is one of those trendy “acqhires,” where Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) buys up the company and the technology and ends up absorbing the company’s workers into Facebook’s payroll. As is usually the case with other such transactions, the employees of Mobile Technologies will be moving from Pittsburgh to the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

Teaching Teachers How to Teach Social

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), while not encouraging it, has become a popular platform for pedophiles to locate and contact young children. Also, though the network has a rule not allowing kids younger than 13 to have profiles, there is reportedly a decent percentage of Facebook profiles were of users younger than 13. Those seem to be a calculus that can make the social network dangerous for students in schools, and that has led some school districts to filer out Facebook and other social networks along with other questionable sites to protect children.

Undaunted, Matt Warman of the U.K. Telegraph reported, Zuckerberg has now introduced a guide for educators that is apparently designed to help teach them ways to use social networking in the classroom for students – which then would encourage Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) to lower its age policy to younger than 13 and encourage more users.

The highlights of the guide, Warman wrote, are that Facebook presents ideas for teachers and classes to use the Timeline as an educational tool, establish classroom Groups (which would be closed to anyone not in the class), and put exams and other school events on the Events or Calendar tools, and more. “Facebook can be used as a way to inspire pupils about a subject by using a tool they like and are familiar with already – set up groups for particular subject topics such as history or science to bring to life your subject material,” Facebook quoted on its website.

Do you need a guide about how to invest in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)? Where do you think it is going from here? Is this a buy and hold opportunity, or are you selling? Does it help you to know that fund manager Leon Cooperman was invested to the tune of nearly $94 million at the end of March? Does it matter to you that fund manager Matthew Hulsizer raised his stake in Facebook stock by 4,100 percent during the March quarter to $12 million?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below, and take a look at the following video regarding how to get off Facebook permanently, if you are socially weary.

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