Social networking giant, Facebook, acquired social startup Branch Media and hired company’s 9-person team to build up a new Facebook Conversation’s group in New York.
Josh Miller, Branch co-founder, was the one who announced the acquisition deal with Facebook Monday morning saying that the role of the new group will be to help people connect with others around their interests.
Although Miller did not mention anything about the purchase price and terms, there are reports that the acquisition was completed for $15M.
Branch is an online social platform, which allows people to start conversations around topics available on the web. The company also launched Potluck, an iOS based application which brings together people to share topics and articles worth discussing and taking the entire conversation onto a more contextual space in early 2013.
In his announcement, Miller made it clear that while the Facebook products in future will be “reminiscent of Branch and Potluck,” the surviving Branch tools will continue to work and live on as standalone products.
Miller also thanked company’s investors including SV Angel, John Borthwick from Betaworks, Buzzfeed’s Jonah Peretti, Lerer Ventures, Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams and Jason Goldman for their support.
