Color closeout story shifts; team said to be headed to Apple

It's been a Color-ful 24 hours for anyone following the several contradictory stories surrounding the future of the exorbitantly-funded social media company Color. As the dust settles, it appears that Apple is poised to purchase the heart of Color, just not its name.

The saga started when an email purportedly sent by Color's VP of Finance Andrew Urushima surfaced, suggesting that the company was on the brink of going dark. This suggestion was then promptly denied by a spokesperson for the company. Then came a report that Apple was prepared to purchase the company in full, for a steep fee.

Now, according to AllThingsD, Apple is indeed putting cash on the table for Color's engineering talent, but not for the company itself. The majority of the startup's staff is reportedly being "acqhired" by Apple -- a move that brings over the key members of Color's team, but leaves behind the company's intellectual property and, of course, the name.

But this tale may not yet be over, and as both Apple and Color are refusing to detail exactly what is going down behind the scenes, we'll have to keep an eye on how it all pans out.