Apple Acquisition

Apple has purchased UK-based photography company Spectral Edge, reports Bloomberg. The Spectral Edge website is now defunct, but the company had developed a mathematical technique for improving photographic imagery in real-time. Created in 2014 from academic research at the University of East Anglia, Spectral Edge's algorithm is able to enhance low-light smartphone images, something that could ...

Apple may have recently acquired UK-based motion capture company IKinema, based on evidence from company filings and information shared by a MacRumors reader. IKinema offers animation technology that's used for games, virtual reality, and more. Earlier this year, for example, IKinema partnered with Ubisoft for IKinema's RunTime software for character creation. IKinema specialized in technology ...

Apple may have purchased image recognition startup Fashwell, a company that designed an engine able to recognize products in images to make photos shoppable. Fashwell CEO Matthias Dantone, CSO Lukas Bossard, and CTO Michael Emmersberger all list Apple as an employer as of January 2019, suggesting an acquisition in late 2018. Dantone's LinkedIn profile says that he works on Apple's machine ...

Apple is in the process of acquiring self-driving vehicle startup Drive.ai in order to boost its own development of a self-driving vehicle system, according to unnamed sources cited by The Information's Amir Efrati and Alex Heath. The planned deal is described as an "acqui-hire," suggesting that Apple is interested in the company primarily for its employees rather than its technology. The...

Apple in 2018 acquired Tueo Health, a startup working on an app to help parents monitor asthma symptoms in sleeping children, reports CNBC. Tueo's CEO and COO, Brownwyn Harris and Anura Patil, changed their employers from Tueo to Apple in late 2018, which is perhaps when the acquisition was completed. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment to CNBC on the acquisition, and it's not known ...

Apple has acquired Italian startup Stamplay, which offered an API-based back-end development platform, according to Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. The report claims Apple paid around five million euros for the company. The report does not cite Apple's standard statement for acquisitions, which typically reads "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do...

Apple last year acquired Laserlike, a machine learning startup located in Silicon Valley, reports The Information. Apple's purchase of the four-year-old company was confirmed by an Apple spokesperson with a standard acquisition statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." Laserlike's website says that its core...

Apple recently purchased PullString, a San Francisco startup that enables the design and publishing of voice apps through its PullString Converse platform, reports Axios. PullString could be used to improve the voice capabilities of Siri, Apple's personal voice assistant. On its website, PullString says that it can be used to "collaboratively design, prototype and publish voice...

Apple recently purchased Data Tiger, a UK startup focused on digital marketing, reports Bloomberg. The acquisition, says Bloomberg, could improve Apple's digital marketing and make it "more relevant to customers." DataTiger's website is blank, but a LinkedIn page for the company says that it offers a set of tools that enable customers to build marketing software that "puts data to work." Usi...

Two and a half months after Apple announced the completion of its Shazam acquisition, the music recognition iOS app is now completely ad-free [Direct Link]. Previously, Shazam would present users with various border advertisements throughout the app, similar to most other ad-supported iOS apps, but as long as you are on version 12.5.1 you will no longer see any ads in Shazam. The app still...

Apple has acquired Platoon, a London-based A&R startup focused on discovering rising music artists, according to Music Business Worldwide. Platoon was founded in 2016 by Saul Klein, co-founder of defunct British video-on-demand service LoveFilm, and Denzyl Feigelson, who is a 40-year music industry veteran and has been advisor to Apple about matters related to iTunes and later Apple Music...

Apple has acquired Silk Labs, an AI startup that focuses on making AI software "lightweight enough" for consumer hardware like cameras and speakers, reports The Information. Apple purchased Silk Labs, a small startup with approximately a dozen employees, earlier this year. Silk's website says that it aims to "bring next-generation visual and audio intelligence to connected products" with...

A new article by Business Insider today takes a look into failed talks that occurred between Apple and startup Leap Motion, which the Cupertino company tried to acquire twice in less than five years. Leap Motion is a company that focuses on making advances in the fields of virtual reality, augmented reality, and hand tracking technology. According to multiple unnamed insiders, the most recent...

Nearly one year after Apple announced its acquisition of music recognition service Shazam, and one month since the acquisition was completed, Shazam has now begun informing users of Apple's plans with their data (via iGeneration). You can see the new splash screen if you have a Shazam account and open up the app. If you've created a Shazam account in the past, which allows you to share Shazams ...

Apple has acquired San Francisco-based music analytics startup Asaii, according to unnamed sources cited by Axios. The deal, which has not been confirmed by Apple, was reportedly worth less than $100 million. Asaii built tools that allowed music labels to discover, track, and manage artists using machine learning. The platform pulled data from social networks and streaming music services,...

Apple has acquired Danish computer vision startup Spektral, according to a paywalled report from Danish newspaper Børsen. Spektral has developed a technology that can intelligently separate people and objects from their original backgrounds in photos and videos, and overlay a new background, resulting in what is called a "cutout." The solution is driven by deep neural networks and spectral...

Apple today announced it has completed its acquisition of music recognition service Shazam, after reaching a preliminary agreement in December. Apple says the Shazam app will soon become ad-free for all users. Oliver Schusser, Vice President of Apple Music:Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and has become a ...

Apple has purchased a startup that makes lenses for augmented reality glasses, reports Reuters. The acquisition lends further evidence to rumors suggesting Apple is developing an augmented reality headset. Akonia Holographics, the startup that Apple bought, advertises the "world's first commercially available volume holographic reflective and waveguide optics for transparent display elements...

Following its acquisition by Apple, Texture this week announced plans to shutter its Texture magazine subscription app for Windows users at the end of June. As noted by The Verge, Texture recently sent out emails to its users letting them know that the Windows service will be discontinued on June 30th, and the company also added a notice to its website. Texture says the Windows app, which ...

Apple today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire digital magazine subscription service Texture, available on iPad, iPhone, and other platforms. The deal is pending approval and financial terms were not disclosed. Apple's services chief Eddy Cue, who revealed the news at the SXSW media festival in Austin, Texas today alongside Apple's press release:We're excited Texture will join...