Facebook, which went public with its IPO on Friday, has been making waves in recent weeks with their aggressive acquisitions of smaller application companies, such as the billion dollar purchase of Instagram which sent heads shaking and asking the question, what does Facebook have up its sleeve?

Karma, a mobile social gifting app is Facebook’s most recent target, and was founded by the same duo that was behind Tapjoy.  The app allows users to send gifts via their mobile device, which can then be posted onto Facebook or through an SMS message as the means of alerting the recipient to the arrival of the gift.

A Facebook representative saying about the takeover, “We’ve been really impressed with the Karma team and all they accomplished in such a short time.  This acquisition combines Karma’s passion and innovating mobile app with Facebook’s platform to help people connect and share in new meaningful ways,” while also stressing that it is not an “acquhire” but instead an acquisition.  The inventors of Karma had wild success with the sale of Tapjoy and while the terms of the Facebook deal have not been released it can be assumed to be a lucrative deal for all of those involved.

Besides the billion dollar Instagram purchase, Facebook has recently swiped up other apps including Lightbox and Glancee, which leaves many speculating the reasons behind such purposes.  Is this Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to buy talent into his corporate offices, or is Facebook preparing to create an entirely new interface where mobile devices, the web, and apps all work seamlessly and this is just the means by which that goal can be achieved?