New Delhi: Social networking giant Facebook today acquired Bangalore-based Little Eye Labs, its first take over in the country, for an undisclosed amount. The start up firm builds performance analysis and monitoring tools for mobile app developers.
"Today, we are very excited to announce that Facebook is acquiring our company. With this acquisition, Little Eye Labs will join forces with Facebook to take its mobile development to the next level," Little Eye Labs said on its website.
This is Facebook's first acquisition of an Indian company and Little Eye is happy to become part of such an incredible team, it added.
Though the deal size has not been announced, reports suggest it could be in the range of USD 10-15 million.
"I'm excited to announce that we're acquiring Little Eye Labs, a company that produces world-class technology to help developers build more efficient products with Android.
This is an opportunity to welcome some of the industry's most talented engineers to our team in Menlo Park, California," Facebook Engineering Manager Subbu Subramanian said.
At Facebook, the focus continues to be on producing useful and engaging mobile apps, he added. "Little Eye Labs technology will help us continue to improve Facebook's Android codebase to make more efficient, higher-performing apps," he said.
Founded about a year ago by four Bangalore-based technology professionals -- Giridhar Murthy, Kumar Rangarajan, Satyam Kandula and Lakshman Kakkirala, Little Eye is backed by GSF and VenturEast Tenet Fund.
"The entire Little Eye Labs team will move to Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. From there, we'll be able to leverage Facebook's infrastructure and help improve performance of their apps," the note said.
It added that current customers of the firm will receive further information on its plans to offer a free version of Little Eye until June 30, 2014.
Some other acquisitions that Facebook has made to strengthen its mobile products include Parse, a mobile- backend-as-a-service startup (April 2013).
Facebook also recently made an attempt to buy instant messaging firm Snapchat, which reportedly turned down its USD 3 billion offer.