Apple may have paid big bucks to acquire Siri app, company


How do you turn $24 million into $200 million? Become a strategic purchase for either Apple or Google, apparently. Word is Apple has paid between $150 to $250 million for the two and a half year old app start up, according to TechCrunch. The San Jose-based company is listed as having only 19 employees with four venture funders.

Siri is a pretty cool app with a lot of upside that's best described as a personal assistant app. The iPhone app takes naturally spoken requests and provides intelligent results. Obviously no one knows Apple's plans for the app, or even if the app is in Apple's plans. Apple may be just interested in the employees and their library of code for new iPhone OS features.

Apple may tipped its hat during the iPhone OS 4 rollout when during a Q/A session Apple CEO Steve Jobs addressed mobile search in regards to iAds. Job said that people aren't using search like they do on the desktop (i.e. Google's Website), but instead use apps for their needs. If you want to find a pizza joint, they may pull up their favorite local foodie app. Phone number, a yellow pages app, and so on. Apple could be looking to reinforce this relationship or perhaps beat Google at its own game with more intelligent searching for specific needs.

Silicon Valley Buzz: Apple Paid More Than $200 Million For Siri To Get Into Mobile Search