Finnish company Sulake Corporation, the company behind Habbo, one of the world’s largest virtual worlds has acquired IRC-Galleria, Finland’s leading social networking service. The acquisition makes Sulake the largest company in online communities and virtual worlds in the Nordic region and falls into the company’s long-term plans to broaden its offerings with new online services. Currently, Sulake has offices in 19 countries with a staff of more than 300 people.

IRC-Galleria currently has a presence in Russia, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany and is the most-used social networking service in Finland, racking up 850 000 unique visitors every month with 415 000 registered members. The site receives 2.2 billion monthly page impressions.

Sulake’s Habbo has more than 76 million registered avatars and currently operates in 29 countries, hosting seven million users per month.