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Business News Digital
Apple certainly got some of Omnifone’s staff and maybe some of its tech
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 9 November 2016
Shortly after white label digital music provider Omnifone went into administration back in May, there were rumours that Apple might buy the firm, or at least some of its assets, there being a general consensus that – if nothing else – the defunct company was sitting on some very fine music data.
Apple, of course, has a habit of acquiring smaller tech firms without comment, so the fact no official announcement followed didn’t necessarily mean the rumours were unfounded. And yesterday TechCrunch cited a source who says that Apple did indeed acquire some of Omnifone’s tech, while also licensing some of its patents with an option to buy them in the future.
The tech site also noted that about sixteen former Omnifone employees now list Apple as their employer on LinkedIn, so in addition to some technology purchases a little bit of head-hunting went on too, maybe even one of those ‘acquihires’ that idiots talk about. Not able to deny the CVs of its new team members, Apple has now confirmed to Billboard that some former Omnifone staffers are now on its payroll.
All this chatter about what happened to Omnifone comes as the founder of that company, Rob Lewis, finally puts live his latest digital music venture Electric Jukebox.
