Facebook to buy TheFind to enter e-commerce

Social networking giant Facebook has acquired shopping search engine TheFind, underlining its move into the biggest online money-makers - search and e-commerce.

Both Facebook and TheFind projected the move as a way to take the digital advertising business of Facebook, to the next level, which, with $ 12.6 billion in annual ad sales last year, is unquestionably a dominant player in the industry.

''Together, we believe we can make the Facebook ads experience even more relevant and better for consumers,'' Facebook said in a statement. Echoing the comments TheFind said its technology would be integrated into Facebook ''to make the ads you see on Facebook every day better and more relevant to you.''

TheFind said in a webpost, its key employees would be joining Facebook and work on improving the relevance of the social network's advertising, adding, its search engine would go offline ''in the next few weeks.''

Facebook had been testing a ''buy'' button since July 2014 that allowed users to purchase goods directly, and now with TheFind, the social network would now look to enhance service.

The acquisition's details were not revealed by Facebook, including how much it paid for the company.

The acquisition would close in the next few weeks.

"We are joining Facebook! This means we'll be taking our search engine and apps offline effective 3/13/2015. Thanks for your loyalty," TheFind wrote on its Twitter profile description.

TheFind, founded in 2006, would shut down and some of its key employees would work at the social network. The Mountain View, California-based website allows users to buy items from websites or in local stores.

Shares of Menlo Park, California-based Facebook were down 5 cents to $78 after the international stock market closed.