May 28, 2012 - 16:44 AMT
Facebook rumored to buy Face.com for $80-100mln

Israeli business publication Calcalist reports (in Hebrew) that the social networking giant Facebook is eyeing a purchase of face recognition technology company Face.com.

According to the Next Web, which cites Newsgeek’s data, the deal size could be between $80 million and $100 million.

In fact, Face.com has long been rumored to be an acquisition target for Facebook, even way before there was talk about the social networking company going public.

From what we heard, negotiations between the two companies have been held a number of times over the years, but Face.com has so far rebuffed offers because of the ‘low’ price Facebook was willing to pay.

Founded in 2007, the startup offers accurate facial recognition software that could help Facebook users identify people in photos faster, both on desktop and mobile.

The Israeli startup built a popular Facebook application itself called Photo Tagger, which lets people scan their (or their friends’) photo albums for known faces, and just recently launched a mobile facial recognition app for iOS called KLIK.

The startup also operates a platform of its own by offering a public API.

Facebook, meanwhile, just launched a camera app for the iPhone of its own, acquired Instagram and may very well end up building not only a proprietary mobile operating system but even its own phone, and it is rumored to be interested in acquiring Opera Software to gain cross-platform browser products and expertise.

Face.com has raised $5.3 million in funding from Yandex and Rhodium to date.