Facebook Inc (FB): This New Acquisition Shouldn’t Bug Anyone

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has been aggressive, yet tactical in some of its acquisitions (Insider Monkey touched on these before) and “acqhires” in recent years. In some cases – as with Instagram – purchasing a company had the designs of improving user experience and engagement on the social-networking site, while other transactions were meant to build up the technical infrastructure of the network to make sure it runs better and more efficiently. While this latest news  may not be very sexy or cause a lot of lot of change in how users use and interact with Facebook, this could be in its own way one of the more significant acquisitions in the company’s brief history.

Mark ZuckerbergWhile details aren’t yet known – especially in terms of purchase price – Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) likely did not have to put forth very much money to secure the services of engineers and tech support staff from a startup that may make bugs a thing of the past in Facebook’s mobile aps. Facebook has been putting out updates to its mobile apps about every month or two, with each new update created to add either a new feature or to correct bugs and increase usability of the apps on mobile devices running virtually any operating system. And with this recent “acqhire” of a company called Monoidics, Facebook may eventually push out app updates that only add features – because the bugs would be eliminated.

Monoidics, a London-based bug-checking software firm, has agreed to be purchased by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), with its engineering and tech support team joining the Facebook payroll as employees in the social network’s London office.

The firm boasts state-of-the-art technology that checks not only for bugs in code before it is released, but also spots areas of risk for exploitation to secure memory safety and security. Monoidics clients include ARM Semiconductor and Airbus, though how this will affect those relationships right now is unclear. Might Facebook become the code-security firm of choice for these and other companies?

What are your thoughts about this acquisition for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)? Do you think Facebook is solely looking internally to use this technology or do you think there is an opportunity to expand its reach externally into a new area of tech? How do you think investors like fund manager Bill Miller (see his full equity portfolio) see this transaction, and do you think the perception (as an internal-only or internal-external deal) will affect how those investors react to the stock? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.

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