Avatars and Augmented Reality: Apple snaps up small startup
Among other things, the company Animato offered avatars for education and video chats. Intellectual property and employees can now be acquired by Apple.
One of Animato's apps: Call Annie helped newcomers learn English.
(Image: Animato)
As part of an asset deal, Apple has acquired materials, rights, and possibly employees from a startup specializing in augmented reality systems and avatars. The company Animato, which developed the AI tutoring solution Call Annie, among others, was based in California. The acquisition was announced via reporting obligations under the EU Commission's Digital Market Act (DMA).
Typical Apple Acquisition Strategy
Apple has thus acquired the right to take over Animato's pending patent applications, obtained licenses for the company's intellectual property (interestingly, however, not exclusively), and received permission to hire employees. According to the description on the EU website, Animato develops and distributes “software that creates virtual avatars for video chats and teaching.”
The process does not constitute a direct takeover of Animato, but only assets are transferred to Apple. By allowing employees to be offered positions, the deal also becomes an “acqui-hire,” a combination of a partial acquisition and an attempt to recruit talent. Apple regularly carries out such purchases, having already brought important functions, apps, and technologies into the company this way. Known acquisitions include the team behind iTunes (which later became Apple Music) or the team behind the visionOS avatars. The voice assistant Siri also did not originally come from Apple itself.
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Various AI and Augmented Reality Companies Acquired
It is unclear what Apple plans to do with Animato's know-how. It can often take years for a product to emerge from such an acquisition. Recently, Apple has acquired companies such as WhyLabs, Mayday Labs, TrueMeeting, and PromptAI, among others. Especially in specialized areas like augmented reality or AI, such acquisitions seem to be worthwhile. However, it also happens that employees brought into the company leave immediately after their contracts expire.
Apple has recently been struggling massively with departures from its AI department – employees were lured away by better offers from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Meta. However, there has been more calm in this area for a few months. The last major departure was the retirement of AI chief John Giannandrea.
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