Facebook has acquired Branch, a New York start up behind multiple social discussion tools. The deal was announced by Branch's co founder in a Facebook post and one report pegs the acquisition at $15 million.
"We will be forming Facebook's Conversations group, based in New York City, with the goal of helping people connect with others around their interests," Branch co founder Josh Miller wrote in the post. "Their pitch to us was: 'Build Branch at Facebook scale!'"
Facebook did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
Miller started working on Branch two years ago. Its first product, also called Branch, launched publicly in early 2013 and let users create conversations around social content. Five months later, Branch launched Potluck, which promised to be a "stress-free" social network that focused on the content being shared and talk about, rather than signs of engagement like re tweets, up votes and Likes.
"The way we are thinking of [Branch] now is a parent studio company that builds conversation products," Miller told Mashable in an interview when Potluck launched. "The sort of conversation that takes place in a town hall on a huge stage in front of an audience is very different than at a backyard BBQ or in an office. I'm not sure Potluck will be the last conversational product we build."
Sure enough, Branch released another application recently called Phone tag Messenger, which let users share voice messages with photos attached. However, this application was notably left out of Miller's acquisition announcement.
The acquisition is a bit ironic, considering that Branch got its start at The Obvious Corporation, a start up incubator created by Twitter co founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone. In his post announcing the acquisition by Facebook, Miller specifically calls out three former Twitter employees — not to mention John Borthwick, an investor in the first company Twitter acquired.
"Essentially our pitch was: Twitter sucks for conversations," Miller told Mashable in an earlier interview. "I think that's what got their attention, they were like, "Yeah, Twitter does suck for conversations." I think the fact that we were building the failings in their products is partially what appealed to them."
Apparently, that pitch got Facebook's attention, too.
The full Facebook post from Miller is below:
After two years building Branch and Potluck, I am thrilled to announce that we will be continuing our mission at Facebook!
We will be forming Facebook's Conversations group, based in New York City, with the goal of helping people connect with others around their interests. Their pitch to us was: "Build Branch at Facebook scale!"
Although the products we build will be reminiscent of Branch and Potluck, those services will live on outside of Facebook. A more thoughtful note and details to come soon but I am writing this haphazardly from a mountain in Japan (I was tipped that the story was going to leak while on vacation).
In the meantime, a huge "thank you" to our investors. Especially, Jason Goldman, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Ryan Freitas, John Borthwick, and Jonah Peretti, who all spent an extraordinary amount of time with us.
Most importantly though, a big congrats to my eight teammates who have worked tirelessly, often behind the scenes. So much [love] and admiration: http://branch.com/company#team - on we go!
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