Facebook’s acquisition of Parakey is interesting for several reasons. Not only is it Mark Zuckerberg’s first acquisition on the road to becoming an internet mogul, it may also be an engineering coup. Before they founded Parakey, Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt were better known as the founders of Mozilla Firefox, the company behind the popular Firefox web browser. They are known as some of the best developers around, and adding their formidable talent to Facebook’s growing team should be good for all involved.

Another interesting aspect of this is Parakey itself. In its press release, Facebook says Parakey’s software, which is still in the development phase, is a "platform for bridging the gap between information on the web and the desktop." If Facebook folds this software into its platform, it will join Google, Adobe, and others who are all working on ways to break down the barriers between the online and offline worlds. What role an offline capability might play in Facebook’s platform strategy remains to be seen - but it’s an interesting step. For further reading, see Valleywag’s take here.

Finally, assuming that Facebook paid for Parakey in stock, Thursday’s deal means that Facebook may now be part-owned by Sequoia, the powerhouse VCs behind Google and other big Valley success stories. Sequoia, which didn’t manage to get in on the ground floor at Facebook, was a big investor in Parakey. 

July 20th, 2007 in Digital media | Permalink