According to several Israeli business newspapers (TheMarker, Calcalist) Facebook has acquired Snaptu for an estimated $ 60 – $ 70 million, although some reports peg the price lower, at around $ 40 million.

Update: a Snaptu executive has confirmed the acquisition but declined to discuss the purchase price or other terms of the deal.

Update 2: and the confirmation is up on Snaptu’s blog. The acquisition is apparently expected to close within a few weeks:

Earlier this year, we announced the launch of a new Facebook mobile application to give people a great mobile experience on a broad range of feature phones. The Facebook for Feature Phones app currently works on more than 2,500 devices.

We soon decided that working as part of the Facebook team offered the best opportunity to keep accelerating the pace of our product development. And joining Facebook means we can make an even bigger impact on the world.
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Snaptu provides a solution for developing, deploying and maintaining online services, particularly on mobile phones. Just a few months ago, Facebook partnered with the company to launch a rich application specifically for feature phones.

The startup was also just in the news for striking a similar deal with professional social networking service LinkedIn. Other supported services include Twitter, Picasa and more.

Snaptu was founded in 2007 and is based in London, with offices in Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley.