Facebook makes its first-ever acquisition with Parakey

The online social networking directory, Facebook announced on Thursday that it has acquired Parakey, a Web-based operating system, for an undisclosed sum.

This is the first-ever acquisition for Facebook Inc., which initially was popular on college campuses, but evolved into a major social networking destination since it opened up registration to non-college students.

Internet start-up Parakey is run by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, best known for their contributions to the open-source initiative that created the popular Web browser Mozilla Firefox.

With its latest move, the social networking service site Facebook's 23-year-old chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg has demonstrated their intention to take the company to numero uno position on the Web instead of selling it to one of its many bidders.

Founded by Zuckerberg and his Harvard buddy, Dustin Moskovitz in February 2004, the Palo Alto, California based, Facebook is the Internet’s second-largest social network, with 24 million members (less than half of whom are now in college), and adding about 150,000 each day. According to Zuckerberg, Facebook is the sixth most trafficked site in the U.S.

However, the financial terms of the transaction were not yet disclosed, but it is expected that Ross and Hewitt will work on the development of Facebook’s technology, especially the company's development program, known as Facebook Platform.

"Blake and Joe built the Firefox Web browser and then turned to the developer community to build on top of the foundation they'd established, not unlike what we've done with Facebook Platform," said Zuckerberg. "The work they've done with Firefox and Parakey and their approach to building products fit right in at Facebook."

In May, Facebook.com opened its door for public, calling on thousands of technology companies and programmers to contribute features to its service. In company’s f8 event in San Francisco, Zuckerberg launched Facebook Platform, inviting all developers to build the next-generation of applications with deep integration into Facebook, distribution across its “social graph” and an opportunity to build new businesses.

Facebook Platform, which debuted with 85 new features designed by other companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and The Washington Post at Facebook's invitation, is an unusual step taken by the company as an ambitious strategy for expansion.

Calling Parakey as an open-source Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do, Ross said they are thrilled to combine their company with the most innovative technology company in the industry.

“Facebook Platform is finally making it easy to share experiences with friends and family over the web, a goal Joe and I have worked toward for years," Ross said.