Facebook Confirms Talent Acquisition of Three Zenbe Employees

Facebook confirmed that it hired three employees from messaging startup Zenbe in a small talent acquisition. They were part of the team working on the new Messages product Facebook launched yesterday, according to Zenbe.

Yesterday, the social network overhauled its private, one-to-one messaging system, re-imagining Facebook as a central hub of informal, social communications through e-mail, text and chat.

Zenbe, a New York-based startup, was known for experimenting with new forms of collaborative communication. Last year, the startup launched a product called Shareflow, which lets users see a flow of communication around specific topics.

“A few months ago, three of our engineers joined Facebook as part of a talent acquisition,” Zenbe said in a statement on its blog. “We believe that messaging and collaboration on the web are on the cusp of a new wave of innovation, and we’re excited to be playing a role in that.”

While there had been ongoing discussions for years about how to revamp Messages, efforts began in earnest earlier this year as the company began assembling a 15-person engineering team — the biggest ever involved in a single project.