On Monday afternoon, it was reported that a former employee of social share start-up Color Labs was suing the company. While recent reports indicated Apple acquired the company's talent, there may be a discrepancy in just how much Cupertino had to fork over on the deal. According to sources, Apple may have paid $7 million to scoop up the Color Labs team and some of its assets.
As reported by TechCrunch, former Color Labs employee Adam Witherspoon has filed a lawsuit against the company and CEO Bill Nguyen. Witherspoon is asking for damages, including wages and benefits, for what the filing refers to as "humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional distress."
Witherspoon's legal team also alledges certain impropreties on the part of Nguyen, including using the company American Express card for personal charges. The filing also claims the Color Labs CEO put his family nanny on the payroll, and retailited against then-CFO Alyssa Solomon when she investigated.
But perhaps more relevant to recent rumors, the lawsuit makes it abundantly clear that Apple has, in fact, acquired some portion of Color Labs' business. No small part of which, it seems, includes the company's talent. Well, all the talent except Adam Witherspoon.
According to Witherspoon, he is the only Color Labs employee blocked from attaining employment with Apple.
TechCrunch also spoke with sources who were involved with the deal. According to these unnamed persons, Apple paid $7 million for the Color Labs assets.
Recent reports indicated the deal cost Cupertino somewhere between $2 million and $5 million. What's not immediately clear, is just how much of Color Labs' assets Apple actually purchased for that $7 million. Allegedly, Color Labs still held on to around $41 million in venture funding when the company began to wind down.
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