Internet giant Facebook has acquired a Malaysian-based company

Social networking phenomenal Facebook Inc of Palo Alto, California acquired a relatively unknown Malaysian internet start-up, Octazen Solutions, for an undisclosed sum last week.

According to Facebook, the buyout was a "talent acquisition" which also roped in Octazen's two founding engineers to work with Facebook.

According to website InsideFacebook.Com, Octazen will remain based in Malaysia, making the two engineers the first Facebook employees based in Asia full time.

However, Facebook said, “This won’t become an office… It’s just a talent acquisition and they’ll be considered as remote workers since we’ve opted to let them remain in Malaysia.”

AllFacebook.com, a website that calls itself the unofficial Facebook resource, pointed out on its site last Saturday that Facebook has been working with Octazen for an unknown period of time.

Octazen makes software that helps Facebook grow its user base by encouraging existing members to invite their e-mail contacts.

The fact that Facebook has experienced explosive growth for the past few years was nailed down to Octazen's tool which founder Mark Zuckerberg had said was "the primary source of growth" for its social network.

Facebook has over 400 million users including 250 million added last year, but has been quiet on the acquisition front, preferring to acquire talent rather than products. Octazen is only the third ever acquisition by the company.

According to online websites, the number of Facebook users in Malaysia surpassed the 1 million mark in early March 2009.

The acquisition of Octazen comes as Facebook is fending off a challenge from Google with the launch of the latter’s Buzz social network.

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Reporting by The Malaysian Insider and Malaysian Mirror.