Facebook planning at least seven more acquisitions this year

Facebook is aiming to make 20 acquisitions this year. Last year it made 10 acquisitions, and the year before the number was just one. Furthermore, the company has said it is open to larger acquisitions, but wouldn't elaborate as to what this means.

"Two years ago we didn't have a track record in acquisitions," Vaughan Smith, Facebook's director of corporate development, told Bloomberg. "While we expected them to work well, it was still a crapshoot how they'd turn out. We've built a culture that supports entrepreneurs, and it's working incredibly well."

So far in 2011, Facebook has made 13 acquisitions, which means it's still planning on picking up seven more companies is the next four months. Facebook is focusing on improving its design as well as website reliability to ensure it remains the world's most popular social network. As Facebook continues to add new features and gain more users, the company wants to make sure its users want to spend more time on the website.

Facebook is facing increasing competition from Google+ and Twitter, as both companies iterate their own services to capture more users. To stay in the game, Palo Alto believes it needs to continue adding talent to its team, keep the social network running smoothly, and support the growing number of mobile users by rolling out new mobile apps and services.

See also:

• Should Facebook buy webOS from HP?
• Facebook acquires interactive iPad book maker Push Pop Press
• Facebook acquires feature phone app maker Snaptu (and then Facebook launches Facebook for Every Phone app)
• Facebook acquires Beluga, a BBM alternative (and then Facebook launches Facebook Messenger app for Android, iPhone)