

Pieceable is acquired by Facebook - andrew_k
https://www.pieceable.com/facebook

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timdorr
I'm actually really happy when acquisitions go down like this. That is, when
they keep their product running long enough to make the transition easy (i.e.,
_not_ Meebo) and open source the product.

Particularly that last piece because it opens up the market to be
commoditized. The secret sauce of getting a web-based viewer of a remote
iPhone Simulator session is now available for anyone. And now a bunch of
competing services will likely pop up (because all the hard work is done) and
that means a price war. The consumers of these services are ultimately the big
winner.

I hope more deals like this happen.

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alpb
I feel like this acquisition is related to Facebook App Center (launched last
week) somehow. They didn't have links or screenshots for iPhone apps, but they
do for Android apps. I was curious why they did not have a screenshot area/App
Store link field for iPhone apps.

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kinkora
_"Facebook is not acquiring the company, technology, or customer data."_

A genuine question: Since this is essentially a talent acquisition, why
doesn't someone else continue running the product? or perhaps sell it off to
another company?

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aculver
That's always an option, like we saw with Airbrake being acquired from
Thoughtbot by Exceptional.
([http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/17212734809/airbrake-
acqui...](http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/17212734809/airbrake-acquired-by-
exceptional)) However, this really only works if you can find someone you
trust enough to uphold the same level of quality in the product, branding, and
customer service, since any future failure will still reflect negatively on
the original developers for some time. I think open sourcing the underlying
technology is a great way to allow other folks to pick up where the company
left off. (We also saw this recently with Copycopter, which was from the same
company as Airbrake.
[http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/19388751626/copycopter-
is-...](http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/19388751626/copycopter-is-now-open-
source))

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thomaspun
Really happy for them. We can't wait for them to open source and integrate
their technology to Delight (<http://delight.io>). It's going to take mobile
usability testing to a new level.

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sinak
Link doesn't work?

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thomaspun
It works for me. What error message did you get? Could you try again?
<http://www.delight.io>

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acgourley
Congrats Fred and Co - hope this was the exit you wanted and deserved.

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sinak
Agreed - congrats guys!

And Alex, just checked out Bitgym - great idea. Will be trying it next time
I'm on the treadmill!

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seanponeil
I could have sworn that during the Instagram acquisition that Facebook wasn't
going to "make a habit" out of acquisitions.

~~~
amirmc
I think he may have meant not making a habit out of $1bn acquisitions of
companies with lots of users.

 _"This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time
we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on
doing many more of these, if any at all"_ [1]

[1] <http://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10100318398827991>

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gozman
Great work Fred! Happy to be a client and a supporter of what you guys have
pulled off. Good stuff!

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chris123
Congrats to the team. Would have been even sweeter if it would have been pre-
Faceplant IPO!

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idroppedthesopa
Hopefully this will increase the quality of their mobile apps.

