Apple has disclosed in a regulatory filing that it will hire employees from personalized audio startup Huxe and license the company’s intellectual property, in a deal commonly described as a reverse acqui-hire. The filing, submitted to the European Commission after Huxe announced its shutdown, says Apple agreed to make employment offers to “certain employees of Huxe AI” and receive a non-exclusive license to Huxe’s IP. It does not specify who received offers, whether they accepted, or what Apple plans to build.

In a reverse acqui-hire, a larger company hires key team members and licenses technology from a startup rather than acquiring the startup outright. Such deals have been called both reverse acqui-hires and plain old acqui-hires, and are seen as a way for large companies to add AI talent and tech while presumably drawing less antitrust scrutiny.

Huxe was founded by developers who had previously worked on the AI-generated podcast features in NotebookLM, recently renamed Gemini Notebook. The startup announced on May 21 that it would remove its app from Apple’s and Google’s stores, stop service, and delete user data. “The team is moving on to new things, and we won’t be continuing development of the product,” it said, also thanking users for feedback that made the app feel like it was built together.

Apple notified the European Commission on June 9, shortly after Huxe’s announcement. The timing could be relevant: Huxe’s shutdown came a day after Spotify unveiled AI-powered podcast generation features, so Apple may be looking to add similar functionality to its Podcasts app. Tech executives have been enthusiastic about personalized audio replacing regular podcasts, the article says, though it is unclear whether many listeners share that view.