Facebook hires the team at design firm Hot Studio

This is Facebook's fifth acqui-hire in the past year

Facebook has been on a bit of tear lately, redesigning two major aspects of its website: the News Feed and the Timeline. And more changes are probably coming, if the company's most recent acqui-hire is any indication.

The social network has picked up the team at design firm Hot Studio, it announced in a blogpost Wednesday. 

Facebook and Hot Studio began working on projects a few months ago, and Facebook says that it immediately "recognized the synergy" between the two teams. 

"Every month, more than a billion people sign on to Facebook looking to catch up with those they care about and share what’s happening in their own lives.  For years, we’ve focused relentlessly on building tools that facilitate these connections - tools that are simple, intuitive, and universal," Facebook wrote.

"These are design and development problems at a global scale, and tackling them requires a tremendous talent for solving complex problems through simple, intuitive design.  Finding designers who understand these issues and who fit into our entrepreneurial, fast-moving culture has always been a particular challenge."

The transition will take a few months, while Hot Studio fulfills its remaining commitments to its clients. The members of the Hot Studio team will eventually be embedded into Facebook's product design, communication design, research, engineering, and content strategy teams.

Founded in 1997, some of San Francisco-based Hot Studio's current clients include Cisco, Warner Music Group, Charles Schwab, Zinio, Ancestry, SFMOMA, and California Academy of Sciences.

"At Hot Studio, we’ve built a team that amazes us every day with their talent, ambition, and ideas. In joining Facebook, we’ll have the opportunity to unleash that talent at a scale that impacts the way businesses and over a billion people around the world communicate. We’re excited to take this next step together, and join one of the greatest companies in the world," Maria Giudice, CEO and founder of Hot Studio, and Rajan Dev, President of the company, wrote in a blogpost. 

Facebook's other acqui-hires

This is now Facebook's fifth acqui-hire in the past year.

In May 2012 Facebook made an acqui-hire when it purchased mobile social discovery app Glancee for an undisclosed amount in May.

Glancee works on top of Facebook, so in order to use Glancee, you have to sign on using Facebook Connect. By signing into Facebook Connect, Glancee takes your "likes" and compares them to other people's "likes" to find matches and similarities. People with similar interests are then shown to one another, depending on location.

In August, Facebook acquired the team at Threadsy, the operator of social marketing tool Swaylo. 

San Francisco-based Threadsy was founded in 2008. It began as a tool for users to see all of their feeds from various social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, in one place.

After shutting down in November 2011, the company shifted to focusing on Swaylo, a service for people to find out their audience and reach on social media. The service was similar to the one offered by Klout, which scores a user’s “social media influence,” based on 400 different variables.

In October, Facebook hired Dwight Crow and Christopher Berner, the creators of used car price comparison website Carsabi.

Most recently, Facebook scooped up the team at blogging platform Storylane. The Palo Alto-company launched in October 2012 as a way for users to share meaningful content with each other. 

 In all, Facebook has acquired over 40 founders through acquisitions.

(Image source: https://www.hotstudio.com)