Facebook Buys, Kills Drop.io

Facebook has purchased most of Brooklyn-based startup Drop.io in what appears to be a move to hire its CEO Sam Lessin.

Drop.io, a service that let users quickly and privately share files, ended its free service this weekend, and paid accounts will last until Dec. 15, according to a company blog post. All files will be accessible until the Dec. 15 deadline. After that deadline, the company plans to delete all its stored data.

“We can confirm that we recently completed a small talent acquisition for drop.io and acquired most of the company’s assets. We’re thrilled that Sam Lessin will be joining us at Facebook,” said a Facebook spokesperson in a statement.

Drop.io explicitly stated that “no user data or content will be transferred to Facebook,” indicating that like Facebook’s buyout of Hot Potato earlier this year, the social network was strictly after executives. And they paid a pretty penny for Lessin.

Drop.io valued itself at $5.99 million, and raised $4.85 million earlier this year, according to an SEC filing. The terms of the Facebook buyout were not disclosed.

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