Hot Studio, a design firm based in San Francisco and New York City, just announced that its team will be joining Facebook.
Facebook has confirmed the news in a post of its own, writing:
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. Hot Studio has a sixteen-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.
Noteworthy-but-unsurprising is the emphasis on “brands and businesses” — i.e., the advertisers who pay Facebook’s bills. That’s a group that Facebook has been trying to convince to embrace non-traditional ad units, and that Hot Studio should have plenty of experience dealing with.
Apparently the transition period will take a few months, while Hot Studio fulfills all of its remaining commitments. According to its LinkedIn page, Hot Studio customers include Cisco, Warner Music Group, Charles Schwab, Zinio, Ancestry, SFMOMA, and the California Academy of Sciences. And here’s a portfolio of sample projects.
An employee at Hot Studio has tweeted saying he’s been told that this is Facebook’s largest talent acquisition ever. A profile page in Inc. says that the company had 67 employees in 2012 and saw revenue of $14.5 million 2011.
We’ve emailed Facebook for details and will update if we hear back. (Update: Facebook says it can’t comment on the talent acquisition tweet.)