The social networking site, Facebook has bought Parakey for an undisclosed amount. For those of you not familiar with Parakey it was the joint venture project by Firefox Founders Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, see The Firefox Kid for more about Parakey.
I was not too sure what to make of this at first. This has been an ongoing project for Ross & Hewitt for quite some time. But as I read further into the article this isn’t one of those ‘buy-out’ type of acquisitions where everything is sold and the original party just walks away from the project (but with a whole lot of money). Instead it almost sounds as if this would provide a guaranteed launch:
Mozilla Firefox founders Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt will help to develop the Facebook site.
Facebook has recently decided to let hundreds of independent developers build software within the Facebook site, turning Facebook itself into a kind of operating system for internet users.
ETA: Blake Ross has posted on his blog about the Parakey/Facebook deal. Facebook Goes Public (withnewsaboutitsrecentacquisitionofParakey,Inc.)
Come join the discussion on the Firefox Extension Guru’s Forum: Facebook Buys Parakey
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