Google Buys Mysterious Startup Agnilux, Founded By Former Apple Employees
Agnilux got its start from disenchanted former P.A. Semi employees, who departed after Apple bought the chip design firm for about $278 million two years ago.
Among the former Apple employees are Mark Hayter, Olof Johanson, Todd Broch, and Dan Dobberpuhl, P.A. semi's founder and CEO, according to Apple Insider. Other members have left giants such as TiVo and Cisco.
It's unclear what Google intends to do with its recent purchase. However, the company seemed to be popular with some of the industry giants, as the firm reportedly held strategic investment talks with Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments. Agnilux technology also seems to be shrouded in mystery, while its minimalist Website was taken offline last week.
The blogosphere has speculated that the Agnilux chip expertise, stemming from its employees' P.A. Semi backgrounds, could position Google to actually compete with the Apple iPhone as well as other mobile technology.
The New York Times reported in February that the company was working on some kind of server in tandem with Cisco. Server technology could also prove beneficial to the search engine giant, whose in-house engineers build and operate its hundreds of thousands of servers.
Google remains tight lipped about the deal, leaving the blogosphere to try in vain to shed more light on the motivation for the purchase and the technology behind the Agnilux name -- roughly translated from a combination of Sanskrit and Latin words to mean fire and light.