Pardon the pun, but Facebook is reported to have its eye on Indian startup Little Eye Labs and may cut a deal worth $10 – $15 million in order to acquire it. It won’t be the first mobile-centric buy for the social network. Earlier this year, it had also added Israeli data analytics company Onavo, and cloud-based platform Parse, to its shopping basket.
With more and more people accessing the web via mobile devices, it’s easy to see why Facebook wishes to stay on top of the game. According to September figures, almost 1.19 billion of its 874 million user base logged into their accounts through phones or tablets. Not concentrating in this direction would clearly mean losing a large part of its humungous community.
What does Little Eye Labs have to offer Facebook?
The Indian startup has a performance analysis tool for Android that Facebook really wants. It lends app developers a method of measuring and analyzing their offerings and optimizing them too. The company counts Intel, Capgemini, Nimbuzz, Qualcomm and a few others as its customers. It is based in Bengalooru and has 8 people working for it.
While an citing unnamed source, TechCrunch says that Little Eye Labs had also pitched to Twitter but got a better response from Facebook. If the deal works out fine, then the founding team members may shift base to the social network’s HQ in the US and get absorbed into its mobile engineering branch.
Facebook as well as the startup are yet to make an official announcement about the acquisition. But no smoke without fire, as they say.