Apple set to close second acquisition in two months

Apple is said to be on the verge of acquiring Color Labs, a photo and video sharing social network. Color Labs was founded by Bill Nguyen who founded music streaming website Lala, which was acquired by Apple in 2009. If the report by TNW is accurate, this will be the second company Apple has acquired over the past two months, after it was reported to have acquired HTML5 specialists Particle, in a deal said to have been closed last month.

Although Color Labs has published an iOS (Free, App Store and Android app (Free, Google Play. Although it has achieved some success, Ngyuen had run into conflict with the board with rumors initially suggest that the $41 million start up was to close its doors.

Nguyen is reported to have demonstrated Color Labs technology to Apple’s Eddy Cue, but no news about the outcome of this has surfaced until now. Apple is thought to be more interested in Color Labs patents and patents pending than the smartphone application implementation of the technology. Color Labs patents include a file format for HD video as well as six patents pending on social sharing, GPS location and battery saving capabilities.

It may roll these capabilities into the iPhone, rather than include a separate application to achieve similar functionality. It has successfully integrated Facebook and Twitter into iOS, with users enjoying the sharing and social networking functions of those applications without having to launch either app separately. Color Labs video streaming and photo sharing capabilities could be integrated in the same way, which might also help to steer iPhone users away from YouTube if it becomes popular enough.

Although not confirmed, Apple is said to have offered Color Labs a multimillion-dollar deal said to be worth in the “high double digits.” This is thought to be enough pay out investors while also offering them a significant return on their initial investment.

By Electronista Staff

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