Facebook Cleaning Out New York Companies

Facebook’s plan to scour New York startups for fresh talent seems to be paying off.

Turns out the social network’s recently announced messaging system update, which integrates Facebook messages, email, and SMS was the direct result of a New York talent hunting trip a few months ago.

New York startup Zenbe announced Tuesday that Facebook had acquired its email product, along with three engineers. Zenbe shut down its service on Oct. 8. The company says it will be focusing on a Facebook-based photo sharing app called Shindig.

Zenbe is the fourth New York talent acquisition that Facebook has made since August. The Palo Alto-based social networking giant bought out location-based check-in service Hot Potato in August for $10 million to get founder Justin Shaffer, who went on to spearhead the Facebook Groups overhaul.

Facebook struck again on Oct. 29, buying out New York-based file sharing service Drop.io to acquire founder Sam Lessin. And news broke last week that Facebook had nabbed senior Foursquare engineer Nathan Folkman.

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