• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 5, 2011

Gowalla founder Josh Williams confirmed the location-based service is being acquired by Facebook via a blog post today. He said Gowalla as a free-standing service would shut down by the end of January as the company integrates with Facebook and its employees move to the social networking giant’s Silicon Valley headquarters.

He noted that Facebook isn’t acquiring Gowalla’s user data, and that the company plans to let users export their data and photos. CNN Money first reported Facebook was acquiring Gowalla Friday but neither company would confirm the deal. Launched in 2009, the Austin-based company wasn’t able to gain significant traction against LBS category leader Foursquare.