Facebook has been in the news again with another high profile acquisition. Just over a month after acquiring WhatsApp the social media giant has now purchased the leaders in virtual reality Oculus Rift. The list of companies and services Facebook has acquired is staggering, at least 45 in total. Zuckerburg's first acquisition came in 2007 when he purchased Parakey. The details around the deal are unclear but it seems pretty obvious from reading the Mashable article this was a pure acquihire,

"We were there for quite a few months — maybe three or four — before Mark told us what he really wanted us to do, which was to lead a major redesign of the site."

Our timeline shows you the major companies to be purchased by Facebook and you can see the full list of mergers and acquisitions here. The timeline doesn't show when the companies were acquired, but the dates they were founded and the dates they stopped operating if they are no longer active. This is quite interesting as it gives an idea of how many were closed down by Facebook after purchasing. View The Timeline

• Acquisitions
• Facebook
• technology