and, of course, its own hacker ethos. Over the years, Facebook has acquired more than 28 companies largely for their engineers. In most cases, it killed the startups' products. Silicon Valley has a name for this peculiar twist on the traditional M&A: the acq-hire, or talent acquisition. While Facebook didn't invent this costly recruiting practice, it has institutionalized it more than any other company. And some of its talent acquisitions have produced hires that became Zuckerberg's closest deputies. Indeed, two of Zuckerberg's five direct reports who oversee key product areas joined Facebook when their companies were acquired: Bret Taylor, a Google veteran and co-founder of the social aggregator FriendFeed, and Sam Lessin, a buddy of Zuckerber's from the Harvard days who founded Drop.io, a file-sharing service. In a 2010 interview, Zuckerberg said this approach to recruiting top entrepreneurial -- read hacker-friendly -- talent was well worth the price."Someone who is exceptional in their role is not just a little better than someone who is pretty good," he said. "They are 100 times better." For more, buy the exclusive Inside Facebook story from Amazon here or from Barnes & Noble here. You can also read it with the iPad app for free if you are a Fortune subscriber, or in the March 19 issue on newsstands.