A Color iOS engineer updated his Twitter profile to say he works for Apple, buttressing reports that Apple is acquiring staff from the spectacularly unsuccessful app maker.
Eric Cheng graduated from the University of Pennsylvania earlier this year with a master’s degree in computer engineering. In April, he tweeted that he’d snagged a post-graduation job with Color as an iOS software engineer, a title he listed in his Twitter bio the last time it was cached by Google, September 22: “iOS Software Engineer in Color Labs, Inc Live in California,USA.”
Today, Cheng’s Twitter bio reads, “work in Apple, live in California.” The change fits with a report that Color’s engineering team of about 20 people is being “acqui-hired” by Apple for $2 million to $5 million. Apple has a history with Color co-founder Bill Nguyen, having acquired Nguyen’s online music locker service La La Media three years ago (reports differ on the price). Color has been a dud compared to Lala, burning through $41 million in venture funding with no significant user base or even clear product vision to speak of.
An email and Facebook message to Cheng, seeking to clarify the circumstances surrounding his bio update, were not immediately returned. (Cheng appears to also maintain a more discreet Twitter account here.) Neither Apple nor Color responded to requests for comment.
In other words, no one’s precisely sure what’s going on between Apple and Color, and no one’s saying anything. One thing seems clear, however: The explosion of social media like LinkedIn and Twitter is making it increasingly hard to keep a lid on news of acquisitions, layoffs and other corporate activity that impacts people’s jobs. Heck, it was only last week that TechCrunch drew on Twitter and LinkedIn activity to report on Apple’s acquisition of web-app company Particle.
Two leaks out of Apple in two weeks: If that doesn’t show the gatekeeper-eroding power of social media, nothing does.
