“As the race continues to pick up more subscribers for streaming music services, TechCrunch has learned that one of the most prominent players in the field quietly picked up some talent and tech to advance its position,” Ingrid Lunden reports for TechCrunch. “Apple hired at least 16 employees and purchased select technology from Omnifone, an early player in streaming music services that filed for bankruptcy this summer.”
“To be clear, Omnifone is not a full acquisition,” Lunden reports. “There was actually speculation that Apple ‘bought out’ or ‘likely acquired’ key assets from Omnifone in July of this year, after a report from Omnifone’s bankruptcy administrators noted that it had found a buyer for parts of the company for $10 million. The rumor at the time was that that buyer was Apple. Those acquisition reports, however, were discredited fairly swiftly.”
“But fast forward just one month later, and it looks like at least parts of it were true,” Lunden reports. “Omnifone has over 50 patents registered to it, covering areas like digital media identification, streaming and downloading. A source claims that some of the tech has also found its way into Apple Music and iTunes, although Apple declined to comment on any specifics when we asked.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Well now, that’s quite the employer upgrade for these former Omnifone staffers! No more bankruptcy worries constantly looming over your heads!
