Little Eye Labs, an Indian analytics start-up, announced on Wednesday that it would be acquired by Facebook in a move that helps drive the company’s mobile strategy.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but some reports put the purchase price at $10 million to $15 million. The company also said that the deal was Facebook’s first acquisition in India.
A spokesman for Facebook declined to comment on the price.
Little Eye, which is based in Bangalore, India, provides monitoring and analysis tools to measure the performance of Android apps. The company plans to move its headquarters to Menlo Park, Calif., where Facebook is based, and said it would offer a free version of its software until June 30 as it transitions.
“With this acquisition, Little Eye Labs will join forces with Facebook to take its mobile development to the next level,†Little Eye said in a statement announcing the deal on its website.
Little Eye’s backers include VenturEast, an Indian venture capital fund, and GSF, an Indian seed investor.
Facebook’s engineering manager, Subbu Subramanian, confirmed the acquisition on, of course, his Facebook page.
“At Facebook, we remain focused on producing useful and engaging mobile apps,†Mr. Subramanian said. “The Little Eye Labs technology will help us to continue improving our Android codebase to make more efficient, higher-performing apps.â€
Investors and analysts have been scrutinizing Facebook’s mobile strategy as more of its users gain access through handheld devices. Last quarter, the company reported that nearly half of its users visited the site on their cellphones and tablet computers. The Little Eye acquisition could help Facebook keep tabs on visits because half of all smartphones operated on the Android system as of last year, according to a report from ComScore.
Some analysts worried that Facebook’s mobile strategy would not be able to keep up with the shift in user habits. Those fears have been somewhat allayed by the company’s jump in mobile ad revenue. Mobile ads accounted for 49 percent of the company’s advertising revenue in the third quarter, up from 41 percent in the previous quarter.
