Apple discloses deal to hire team and license tech from personalized podcast startup Huxe

Apple revealed in a regulatory filing that it has reached an agreement to bring on team members and technology from personalized audio startup Huxe, in what’s commonly known as a reverse acqui-hire deal.

苹果在一份监管文件中披露，该公司已达成协议，将从个性化音频初创公司 Huxe 引进团队成员和技术，这通常被称为“反向收购”（reverse acqui-hire）。

As first reported in MacRumors, Apple disclosed to the European Commission that it has agreed to make employment offers to “certain employees of Huxe AI,” and to “receive a non-exclusive license to Huxe’s intellectual property rights.”

据 MacRumors 最先报道，苹果向欧盟委员会披露，已同意向“Huxe AI 的部分员工”提供工作机会，并“获得 Huxe 知识产权的非独家许可”。

Reverse acqui-hires emerged in recent years as a way for larger companies to hire key team members and license technology from startups without acquiring the startups outright — presumably allowing them to build up AI talent and tech without drawing as much antitrust scrutiny. (Confusingly, these deals have both been referred to as “reverse acqui-hires” and as plain old “acqui-hires.”)

近年来，“反向收购”已成为大型企业的一种手段，即在不直接收购初创公司的情况下，聘请其核心团队成员并获得技术许可——这大概能让他们在积累人工智能人才和技术的同时，避免引起过多的反垄断审查。（令人困惑的是，这些交易既被称为“反向收购”，也被称为普通的“收购”。）

In the case of Huxe, the startup was founded by developers who’d previously worked on the AI-generated podcast features in NotebookLM (recently renamed Gemini Notebook). But Huxe announced on May 21 that it was shutting down, with the team posting on the Huxe website that the company would be removing its app from the Apple and Google stores, halting service, and deleting user data.

就 Huxe 而言，这家初创公司由曾参与 NotebookLM（最近更名为 Gemini Notebook）人工智能播客功能开发的开发者创立。但 Huxe 在 5 月 21 日宣布关闭，团队在 Huxe 网站上发文称，公司将从苹果和谷歌应用商店下架其应用程序，停止服务并删除用户数据。

“The team is moving on to new things, and we won’t be continuing development of the product,” the company said. It also thanked its users, saying, “The fact that you used it, told friends about it, sent us your suggestions and your ideas, made it feel like we built it together.”

“团队正在转向新的事物，我们将不再继续开发该产品，”该公司表示。它还感谢了用户，并称：“你们使用它、向朋友推荐它、向我们发送建议和想法，这让我们感觉像是共同打造了它。”

On June 9, shortly after Huxe’s announcement, Apple notified the European Commission of its deal. The filing does not say who received employment offers or if they accepted. Nor does it disclose anything about Apple’s plans.

6 月 9 日，即 Huxe 发布公告后不久，苹果向欧盟委员会通报了该交易。文件并未说明谁收到了工作邀请，也未说明他们是否接受。此外，文件也没有披露关于苹果计划的任何信息。

Possibly related: Huxe’s shutdown announcement came just a day after Spotify unveiled AI-powered podcast generation features of its own, so Apple could be hoping to add similar functionality to its Podcasts app. Tech executives seem enamored with the idea that personalized audio can replace regular podcasts (and maybe even parent-child interaction?), though it’s not clear how many normal listeners agree.

可能相关的是：Huxe 的关闭公告发布仅一天后，Spotify 就推出了自己的人工智能播客生成功能，因此苹果可能希望为其播客应用增加类似的功能。科技高管们似乎对“个性化音频可以取代普通播客（甚至可能是亲子互动？）”这一想法情有独钟，尽管目前尚不清楚有多少普通听众会认同这一点。