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Facebook has bought the innovative e-book publisher Push Pop Press but will not use the company to publish e-books. The giant social networking website will instead use PPP's platform and technology to give "people even richer ways to share their stories".
Push Pop Press made headlines earlier this year with its Al Gore app Our Choice, which the company claimed used a "new, groundbreaking multi-touch interface", allowing the reader "to experience that content seamlessly".
The acquisition prompted speculation that Facebook could enter the growing e-book market, but press release on the Push Pop Press Web site denied this: “Although Facebook isn’t planning to start publishing digital books, the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook, giving people even richer ways to share their stories.”
Co-founders Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris said: "There are no plans to continue publishing new titles or building out our publishing platform that was in private beta . . . We're taking our publishing technology and everything we've learned and are setting off to help design the world's largest book, Facebook."
The New York Times speculates that Facebook could have chosen to buy Push Pop Press to "swoop up a talented team of designers and programmers". Facebook said in an e-mail message that some of the companies engineers would be joining Facebook, the newspaper reported.