August 3, 2011 01:22 pm EDT

Facebook burns a little cash, buys group messaging and digital book outfit

Facebook gone and done some serious damage to the company credit card, but thankfully, it's being used for more than replacing chimneys and repairing pool liners. Zuck's prized possession has just snapped up Push Pop Press and Beluga, with the former being best known for creating interactive digital books, most notably gadget junkie Al Gore's "Our Choice" book for iPad. Beluga on the other hand, gained lots of attention for its group messaging app built for iOS and Android. Push Pop Press co-founders (and former Apple engineers) Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris were quick to say that Facebook has no plans to publish digital books; they did confirm, however, that "the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook, giving people even richer ways to share their stories." Mysterious. Could the Push Press Pop acquisition be the key to the fantasmical iPad app we've yearned for since the dawn of the new millennium? Beluga confirmed the future of Facebook mobile messaging when it said, "we're excited to build our vision for mobile group messaging as part of the Facebook team." Equally mysterious. Unfortunately, no concrete details are being made available, with each site's homepage simply confirming that It's Complicated.

Facebook burns a little cash, buys group messaging and digital book outfit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PermalinkAll Things D | Beluga.com, Push Pop Press ||Comments

Original Link: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/03/facebook-burns-a-little-cash-buys-group-messaging-and-digital-b/

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