Palo Alto  – In a move sure to send shockwaves across the Facebook universe, Facebook executives announced early this morning that the company would be purchasing social media giant Facebook, and would begin folding its features into Facebook as soon as possible.

This move, which was announced via an updated status message on Facebook, comes right on the heels of the 250-million-member site’s purchase of competitor FriendFeed, and their subsequent announcement of “Facebook Lite”. Company executives say the timing of this third move was intentional.

“We really wanted to find a way to build on the momentum of our other two big announcements this week,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “And what better way to demonstrate our commitment to being Internet game-changers than to buy our own company? I don’t think anyone would disagree that we look like a great investment. And Facebook met us at a price we couldn’t pass up!”

Initial buzz among industry watchers was positive. @SocialMediaKING tweeted, “FB + FF + FL + FB > TW”, and @Top_SEO_Guy replied, “Right? I’d totally buy Facebook right now, LOL. #nobrainer”

Similar sentiments were echoed in comments on people’s messages at FriendFeed, and even at Posterous and Tumblr. Facebook’s fan page on Facebook gained nearly 200,000 fans in the hours since the buyout, and the resultant 200,000 wall postings on members’ profiles have received an unprecedented 3 million “Likes” in that same time period.

About this last bit of news, technology maven Robert Scoble was initially rumored to have tweeted, “3 million – that’s a lot of likes”, but it is now believed that quote was a fake retweet.