Apple Acquisitions

What could Apple be planning with Rovi?

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Sep 22, 2010 a 5:16 pm

On Monday Fortune brought word that Apple had entered into a multiyear licensing deal with Rovi, which could cover everything from TV guides to DRM. But what could Apple want with this tech?

Gene Munster, of course, still thinks Apple will build their own TV. I still think that's a leftover rumor from when they were readying the 27" iMac. With a $99 Apple TV on the way, Apple doesn't have to worry about competing with Sony or Samsung in the lower-margin, high cost, premium TV market but can simply piggy back onto any existing panel in the living room.

Apple buys Polar Rose face-recognition company

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Sep 20, 2010 a 11:05 am

Apple has once again opened that $40+ billion bank account and, according to reports, purchased Swedish face-recognition company, Polar Rose.

The Malmö-based company specializes in developing technology which makes facial recognition, not unlike what Apple already has and uses iPhoto for Mac OS X. Through sophisticated algorithms, manages the software of the Arctic Rose to recognize faces in images and the company offers three different products using this solution. Two of the (Face Cloud and FaceLib) them seem to be very interesting for Apple.

Likely yet another talent and technology acquisition, will this simply be used to bolster the existing iPhoto/Aperture Faces feature, or could Apple have grander plans for facial recognition? They do have iSight on Mac and front-facing cameras on iPhone and iPod touch, and likely iPad as well soon.

[Mac1 via 9to5Mac, additional video via MacRumors]

iOS 4.1 HDR photography comes from Imsense acquisition?

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Sep 13, 2010 a 1:10 pm

iOS 4.1 includes HDR photography for iPhone 4, but did Apple roll the technology themselves or did they buy it along with UK company Imsense Ltd? MacRumors has done some sleuthing and they think the latter:

According to a note on the website of Braveheart Ventures, which backed imsense, the company was acquired by "an undisclosed trade buyer in July 2010". According to a press release from Braveheart, it received £342,000 for its minority stake in imsense, more than doubling its original £150,000 investment in two years.

Apple acquires map API company Poly9

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Jul 14, 2010 a 11:24 am

According to the Sun, Apple has purchased Quebec-based Poly9, a mapping API provider for Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo!, MSNBC, and NORAD.

Poly9's website has been shuttered, their employees moved to Cupertino.

Last year, Apple bought PlaceBase, a company that specialized in API for layering data sets over maps.

Since there's only a few companies that actually own the maps themselves, Apple still isn't going into the map business -- but they certainly look to be doing a lot to make their implementation of maps better and more powerful.

iOS 5 anyone?

Streaming media service Lala goes byebye, will iTunes.com take its place?

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Jun 1, 2010 a 10:20 am

Streaming music service Lala closed its virtual doors today. Acquired by Apple last year, rumors persist that Lala talent and technology will be a part of an upcoming iTunes.com service that moves Apple music, movie, and TV offerings to the cloud.

Apple buys Siri voice-powered personal assistant

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Apr 28, 2010 a 1:33 pm

Apple's buying spree obviously didn't stop with chip wizards Intrisity -- they've snapped up voice-powered personal assistant Siri as well.

Boom Town: Apple Buying AdMob Competitor Quatro Wireless

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Jan 5, 2010 a 12:10 am

Boom Town claims several sources have confirmed that Apple is getting into the in-app advertising business by buying AdMob competitor Quattro Wireless for $275 million.

Since Apple currently dominates the mobile app space, bolstering their cut of profits with a cut of in-app advertising is likely good business for them. It's all about the eyeballs, and if those eyeballs are locked on iPhones and iPod touches, why let Google gobble it all up?