Apple Inc. (AAPL) Buys Personal Assistant App Cue [REPORT]

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is said to have purchased Cue, a startup company which created a personal assistant app for the iPhone. That’s according to Apple Insider, which cited “an anonymous tipster.”

Apple Inc. (AAPL) Buys Personal Assistant App Cue [REPORT]

Cue shut down this week

Cue actually shut down this week, and the tipster claims that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) paid between $35 million and $45 million for the company. Cue received funding from Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital and was an alumnus of Y Combinator venture capital. Cue never released information about its final funding round, but according to Apple Insider’s source, the company raised about $10 million from Index Ventures.

Juli Clover of MacRumors reported today that they had heard similar rumors about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) possibly acquiring Cue.

How Cue worked

The personal assistant app worked by aggregating data from calendars, contacts and email into one daily picture. It functioned in a manner similar to that of the contextual notifications offered by iOS 7 and Google Now, although the app was in existence before both of those two services.

The company’s original name was Greplin, and it would index various bits of content from a number of social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook. It would also pull information from Gmail, allowing a single search to pull documents and links from various sources available to the user. In 2012 the company became Cue and focused on its personal assistant app, which turned all of that information into an agenda for its users.

What Apple might want with Cue

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) never directly comments on acquisitions or rumors about acquisitions, but did provide its standard statement to TechCrunch. A spokesperson said they occasionally buy smaller technology companies, although they don’t say what their plans are for the companies.

Of course that isn’t keeping people from speculating about what Apple might want with Cue. The app’s functionality could be very helpful in further development efforts for Apple’s own personal assistant Siri.

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