Facebook brings Gowalla founders on board

Facebook has announced that it will bring the management team from location-based social network Gowalla into its own workforce, and will close down the Gowalla service in the process.

Gowalla’s CEO Josh Williams and co-founder Scott Raymond will move from the company’s Texas headquarters to Facebook headquarters in California.

“While Facebook isn’t acquiring the Gowalla service or technology, we’re sure that the inspiration behind Gowalla will make its way into Facebook over time,” Facebook said in a statement.

Gowalla will be winding down at the end of January 2012 as a service in its own right but CEO Williams explained: “We plan to provide an easy way to export your Passport data, your Stamp and Pin data, along with your legacy Item data, and your photos as well,” in a blog post.

He added that Facebook is not acquiring Gowalla’s user data.

“As we move forward, we hope some of the inspiration behind Gowalla — a fun and beautiful way to share your journey on the go — will live on at Facebook,” Williams concluded.