Facebook looking to acquire Face.com

While Facebook entered the IPO world recently after buying photo-sharing app Instagram, the popular social network is reportedly set to make a number on new acquisitions. According to Israeli business publication Calcalist, Facebook is in negotiations to acquire facial-recognition technology company Face.com.

The company is said to be offering the facial-recognition business $80 million to $100 million, while the sale of Instagram went for $1-billion.

According to CNET, “The technology made a splash in 2009 when it released Photo Tagger, a free third-party application for Facebook that uses facial recognition technology to automatically tag photos of people, as well as a recognition-based alert service for Facebook. In 2010, Face.com released an open API to the public that allows third-party developers to incorporate the technology in their apps.”

While the Instagram purchase was Facebook’s most prolific, the company has by buying up other businesses in its wake – buying social-discovery service Glancee and social-gifting company Karma. Both companies were sold for undisclosed amounts.

Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor