The talent acquisitions continue for Facebook. The social network has just bought the software design company Sofa, we’ve learned.
The Amsterdam-based company was founded in 2006 and is known for its Mac applications and e-commerce products on the web. Notably they do all their own designs including art, icons, and interfaces for other high-profile clients (Mozilla, Tom Tom, etc). Not surprisingly, the team will be joining Facebook’s design team.
Below, the statement from Facebook’s Director of Design Kate Aronowitz:
We were just blown away by the Sofa team’s work, from their Mac and web software to the interfaces and brand identities they created for clients. The more we got to know them, the more we realized that their passion for working in small teams and iterating to find solutions to hard problems matched our own culture. We can’t wait for them to join the team.
Sofa has more on their own blog:
We expected to keep working at Sofa forever. But after Facebook first made contact, we were quickly convinced to join forces.
Facebook is full of talent and has a great culture. We feel challenged and at home at the same time, and can really get things done there. But equally important, we believe that at Facebook, we will be making a real difference to a lot of people’s lives.
The Sofa team will be moving from Amsterdam to Palo Alto in the coming weeks – and we’ll make sure to infuse some of our particular flavor of Dutch culture at Facebook.
Notably, two of Sofa’s key products, Kaleidoscope and Versions (both Mac applications), were not a part of this acquisition. Both apps will continue to live on, but Sofa now has to find a new home for them, they say. Two other products, Checkout and Enstore, will also live on thanks to the joint partnerships they were created under. Sofa is working on their transition out of those products now as well.
Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. But again, this is a pure talent acquisition for Facebook. And we’ve heard the main emphasis behind it is to continue to boost their product design talent. Aronowitz herself is a part of that. Before joining Facebook, she was the Director of Design for LinkedIn.
Add to that Rasmus Andersson, Ji Lee, and Nicholas Felton (who came over in the Daytum deal), and you have a very impressive team of recently acquired design talent.