Here’s some Apple news that doesn’t involve the iPhone 6 or the Apple Watch –
According to Pando Daily, a “single well-placed source inside Apple’s engineering team” says that the company is poised to buy Path, the social network and photo sharing service that famously limits connections to 150 people.
From Pando:
According to our source, this is more than just a talent acquisition, or acquihire. The Path product will likely survive the acquisition and be incorporated, in whole or in part, into Apple’s newly refreshed Messages app.
Path’s star hasn’t been the brightest as of late. As Business Insider points out, the network has only amassed about 25 million users and just last year was forced to lay off 20 percent of its staff. Path has also had to weather a couple of privacy dustups, one in which the app was accused of collecting personal data from people’s address books without their knowledge and the other in which Path was alleged to have violated COPPA. Both were settled with the FTC last February.
An acquisition of Path would get Apple back into the social game – or at least get people talking about Apple in the social game. Apple’s strong suit has never been social (remember Ping?), but maybe the company is looking to change that with this buy.
Fuel has been added to the acquisition rumor fire, as Path founder Dave Morin attended Tuesday’s iPhone 6/Apple Watch press event and sat next to Dr. Dre.
Did not forget about Dre. pic.twitter.com/fWNDpFhfYr
— Dave Morin (@davemorin) September 9, 2014
As you know, Dr. Dre was recently brought into the Apple family when the company acquired his Beats music company.