Adobe has Acquired Nitobi Software

Adobe Systems has signed an agreement to acquire Nitobi Software, the creator of HTML5 mobile app framework PhoneGap and PhoneGap Build. PhoneGap is an open source platform for building cross-platform mobile applications with HTML5 and JavaScript.

The PhoneGap’s open source framework has been downloaded more than 600,000 times and thousands of applications have been built using PhoneGap on Android, iOS, BlackBerry and other operating systems. The company also just launched a PhoneGap Facebook Connect plugin to allow HTML5 developers to simplify the log in process for their apps by allowing users to login with their Facebook credentials.

With PhoneGap, Adobe says it will offer will offer developers the choice of building native mobile apps using HTML5 and JavaScript with PhoneGap or using Adobe Air and Flash.

The acquisition is expected to close by the end of October 2011 and all of Nitobi’s employees, which are based in Canada, will join Adobe.