• TechCrunch, Friday, August 20, 2010 2:53 PM

Confirming month-old rumors, location-based startup Hot Potato said Friday that it's been acquired by Facebook. In an official blog post, the startup didn't share any details about the deal. TechCrunch first reported that a deal was in the works, after which Silicon Alley Insider and All Things Digital pegged a purchase price of $10 million to $15 million.

To date, Hot Potato has raised $1.42 million from RRE Ventures and other angels, including longtime Facebook senior platform manager Dave Morin. As Social Beat notes, "Hot Potato was also vague about what this deal might mean for Facebook Places, the location check-in service unveiled on Wednesday." Indeed, Hot Potato only says "some of the features and thinking behind Hot Potato are going to be exposed to a much larger audience." Hot Potato differentiates itself from other check-in services by letting users "check-in" into events and activities, in addition to static locales. Adds Social Beat: "Facebook Places doesn't offer anything like that right now, but that seems like one way the company could connect Places with existing features like Facebook Pages."

Read the whole story at TechCrunch »