Hot Potato confirmed on Friday that they are now the latest addition to the Facebook family of sites, ending a month of speculation that an acquisition was in the works.

The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but insiders are estimating that this deal could be valued in the neighborhood of $10-$15 million dollars. It’s not just the financial aspect that Hot Potato has remained quiet on as the start-up has offered few details as to what this acquisition will mean to the company, only stating that “some of the features and thinking behind Hot Potato are going to be exposed to a much larger audience.”

It remains up to the public as to how to read into this, but one of the big differences between Hot Potato and other check-in sites is that with Hot Potato, users can check into physical locations as well as into other activities and events. This puts Hot Potato at an advantage over it’s competitors and this is also a feature that is currently not available through Facebook Places.

So to speculate, it’s very possible that this Facebook acquisition is about integrating Facebook Places with other Facebook features like pages and in the process, Facebook has also acquired a small, but talented team of designers and programmers.

Hot Potato has confirmed that it will close shop and delete user data within the next 30 days.

Via: Venture Beat