Facebook buys Onavo company

Facebook announced on Monday that it has acquired Onavo, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup focused on intelligence around mobile application data, Allthingsd.com reported.

Facebook will acquire both talent and technology as a result of the acquisition — the terms of which were not disclosed — and will also turn Onavo’s Tel Aviv headquarters into Facebook’s new Israel office, a first for the social giant.

Founded in 2010, Onavo dabbles in a number of areas, including mobile app analytics and measurement for marketers (and reporters), as well as in a mobile security division.

It is data management and compression, however, that makes up the bulk of the company’s efforts — and is likely the area that Facebook cares the most about. Onavo offers apps such as “Count,” which monitors the data you use on your smartphone, as well as “Extend”, which shrinks the total amount of information you download on your phone, to maximize your data plan.

These services in particular are in line with the goals of Internet.org, the effort spearheaded by Mark Zuckerberg in conjunction with a host of major global technology companies, which aims to deliver connectivity to the billions of people across the world who do not have Internet access. Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung are among some of the effort’s largest partners.