# Facebook buys code-checking Silicon Roundabout startup Monoidics

Acquisition of company which carries out tests to find crashing bugs will see its technology applied to mobile apps and site

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- Charles Arthur
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 July 2013 18.55 BST

Facebook has bought Monoidics, a startup company from London's "Silicon Roundabout" which writes award-winning software for testing other software to check it doesn't have flaws. The price was undisclosed, but is thought to be in the low millions of pounds.

Monoidics, started in 2009, writes "code verification software" using mathematical principles to determined whether a piece of software will execute correctly. The idea came out of a research project by co-founder Dino DiStefano, who with two colleagues developed "Infer", a program which could point to critical flaws such as "memory leaks" - which can make programs and computer crash - or conversely show that software was fine. Overall, 90% of crashes are caused by a single type of error.

Monoidics started in 2009, and is reckoned to be profitable, with net assets of around £300,000 at the start of 2012 on turnover estimated at around £600,000 - though it has not filed annual accounts due at the end of 2012.

The technical staff will join Facebook's London office once the deal is completed. Facebook refused to say how many people that will be, or how many non-technical staff currently working for Monoidics might lose their jobs as a result of the buyout.

Silicon Roundabout - the name for the area around London's Old St roundabout - has become a hunting ground for a number of larger firms recently. In 2011 Twitter bought UK startup Tweetdeck for £25m, and Google has set up offices in the area too.

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### About this article

Facebook buys code-checking Silicon Roundabout startup Monoidics

This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 18.55 BST on Thursday 18 July 2013.

#### Technology

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