It is natural to get
confused by the swirl of stories associated with social video startup Color in
the past 24 years.
First, an internal memo
had leaked that said that the company was winding down. Then AllThingsD was
told that Color was not closing down and that some people at the company had no
clue about where the memo came from. Then, Color was being purchased by Apple
Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) in lieu of a high value.
Among all kinds of
speculations, what really was happening went something like this. 20 people
made up the engineering team of Color. They comprised almost the entire
company. It is being ‘acqhired’ by Apple at a ‘nominal’ price, as per several
sources, which are familiar with both sides of the situation. There are no
double-digit millions involved in the deal, just to be precise.
Apple is not acquiring
technology of Color, its domain names, liabilities and intellectual property. Those
are being left with the company. So, around $25 million cash will stay in the
bank.
Apple and Color has
refused to comment on this matter. CEO of Color, Bill Nguyen did not respond
immediately about a query about the acquisition of talent.
There appears to be
more bad blood than alliance among employees of Color, former employees of
Color, investors of Color and Apple. That is the reason why there have been so
many conflicting stories.
Color had started as a
social discovery product with $41 million in funding from Bain Capital and
Sequoia Capital. It then pivoted to a silent video app connected to Apple. Color
has recently grabbed a deal with Verizon to dole out a live video app on Android
phones that launched in May and showed early signs of doing well.
Sources say that Color
engineering team will probably work on cloud technology at Apple.
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