Apple were rumoured to be buying Omnifone back in July and although they may not have bought the platform they’ve taken some of their tech and talent.

Omnifone have provided backend management for major music services and companies including Sony, Samsung, PONOMusic, and others. After finding themselves in debt, which resulted in 71 staff layoffs, earlier this year in May the company decided something drastic had to be done to continue running.

Although it’s still not clear who the $10 million buyer of Omnifone’s technology is it’s been revealed that Apple have nabbed at least 16 employees from Omnifone as well as “select technology”. When it was revealed in July that Omnifone were finalising a $10 million sale of their assets it was rumoured to be Apple, but it appears they just arranged their purchase at the time with the “US company” who have bought the majority of Omnifone’s technology remaining anonymous for now.

It’s not clear yet why Apple would want to use Omnifone’s assets with it’s already well established store iTunes and their not-so-new-anymore streaming service Apple Music both already fully functioning. With the new hires from Omnifone Apple may be planning to use their technology for something new that requires people familiar with Omnifone’s products.

The news comes as Omnifone’s original founder Rob Lewis has revealed that his new music streaming service announced last year, Electric Jukebox will finally launch this week. Lewis’ new streaming service aims to appeal to audiences that haven’t yet been drawn into streaming services or who might not understand, wanting to provide an all-in-one plug an play music streamer.