Facebook has quietly acquired mobile software startup Osmeta, according to TechCrunch, which claims to have confirmation from the company.
Facebook isn’t talking about its plans for the acquisition, and Osmeta doesn’t actually have a product that’s available. Apparently it’s been working on some “really, really interesting software” though, according the startup’s website. I’m intrigued by that second “really”.
Apparently it’s something for the following devices, which are listed on Osmeta’s Devices page: Velocity Micro Cruz, Barnes & Noble NOOK, Nexus S, Acer Iconia Tab A700, HP TouchPad, Ematic eGlide Prism, Motorola Xoom, Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook, WeTab, Galaxy Nexus, Some ThinkPad, iPod Touch, Ainol Novo, Paladin, Asus Transformer Infinity, Nexus One, Samsung Series 5 Chromebook, PandaBoard, iPad, Samsung Slate 7 Windows Tablet, iPhone 4, Some x86 PC, HP Mini 210 Netbook and MacBook Air.
On the “About Us” page, Osmeta says the following about is team (which may be the main point of the acquisition):
We have the most formidable programming talent density imaginable under a startup’s roof, or any other roof for that matter.
Our 19-person engineering team consists of world-renowned hackers and highly accomplished researchers capable of herculean software engineering. The breadth and depth of computer science knowledge contained within the brains of our team is remarkable. Most of us have had illustrious careers at places such as Google, IBM Research, Yahoo Research, and VMware.
Our programming experience is even more impressive—both quantitatively and qualitatively. Between us, over the years, we have done pretty much “everything” in terms of software creation, including several first-in-the-world type of magical things. (Examples: Android, Chrome for Android, Chrome OS, Google Crawling, AdWords, ZooKeeper, BookKeeper, Pig (Hadoop), OSGi, Linux kernel control groups, network and other device drivers, cognitive computing, massive storage systems, unusual file systems, various types of virtualization, video game console emulation, and many, many others.)
And yet, what we are doing at osmeta is the coolest, most fun-to-work-on, and most ambitious endeavor any of us has ever been involved in. It’s the significance and meaningfulness of this endeavor that brought us together at osmeta.
We believe that with discipline and focus, a small group of talented people can change the world.
