Facebook makes Sofa its latest manquisition

Facebook’s string of talent acquisitions continued today with the announcement that it has purchased an Amsterdam-based software and design company called Sofa.

As with most of Facebook’s past acquisitions, the social networking company is pretty open about the fact that it’s buying the company for the team, not the product — a move sometimes called an “acqhire” or a “manquisition”. In fact, Sofa says that its products are not part of the deal, and that it will be working with partners “to provide the smoothest transition and best possible future” for some of its apps.

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Many of these deals are framed as a way to hire top engineers, but in this case, it looks like Facebook is particularly interested in Sofa’s design skills. In a written statement, Facebook’s director of design Kate Aronowitz said, “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 terms of the deal were not disclosed.