• eMoney, Tuesday, January 25, 2011 2:10 PM

Facebook has acquired hyper-local mobile advertising startup Rel8tion, reports AllThingsD's eMoney blog. In a statement, Facebook characterizes the "recent" deal as a "talent acquisition," and says that Rel8tion's engineering team with join its growing Seattle office. "There's not much information on the company, but according to the little information available on its site, it was trying to create a system for syncing up a person's location and demographics with the most relevant ad-inventory," according to TechCrunch. Facebook no doubt has an interest in mobile advertising.

Still, this latest buy is miniscule compared to Apple and Google dropping hundreds of millions of dollars on Quattro Wireless and AdMob, respectively. Rel8tion's founder Peter Wilson -- who was already helping Facebook establish its Seattle presence - will now serve as an Engineering Director at the top social network. Wilson previously did time as an engineering director at Google, helping to build up Google's Kirkland, Wash.-based Engineering Center, notes TechCrunch.

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