• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, October 18, 2012

Apple is reportedly buying Color Labs -- the photo-and-video-sharing social network that never lived up to its own hype. “The startup was nabbed for a price that is in the ‘high double-digits,' as in millions,” reports The Next Web, citing sources.

“The vision for Color was big,” writes Business Insider. “Unfortunately, in terms of actual user adoption, the app went nowhere.”

In fact, the news comes just a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that Color was denying claims that it would be closing up shop.

Then, what explains Apple’s interest in the startup? “According to the US PTO, Color has filed applications for a number of patents on very general and very valuable things,” TechCrunch reports. “We’re talking patents with titles such as ‘Sharing Content Among A Group Of Devices,’ ‘Sharing Content Among Multiple Devices,’ ‘Storage Of User Device Group Information,’ and ‘User Device Group Information.’”

Also, as Forbes writes, there’s history between Apple and Color’s co-founder and CEO Bill Nguyen. “Apple bought one of his other startups, Lala, for $80 million in 2009,” it notes. “Nguyen is also known to have a relationship with Apple’s SVP Internet software and services, Eddy Cue.”

Yet, questioning the buyout reports, VentureBeat writes: “The bottom line is that there are a lot more questions than answers with Color’s situation. Clearly, the company is on the verge of a major shift, but what form that shift will take is still very much unknown.”