Yesterday’s bizarre lawsuit against Color and CEO Bill Nguyen confirmed a lot of juicy details, but probably the most significant info came from Color’s website: The app is officially, definitely shutting down.
“We hope you’ve enjoyed sharing your stories via real-time video. Regretfully, the app will no longer be available after 12/31/2012,” a notice on the app’s website reads.
Launched last March, Color allowed users to take photos as well as view those of other people in their area. While the idea was hardly a unique or groundbreaking one, it nonetheless helped Color Labs raise $41 million, funding that’s not all that useful now the company is shutting down.
Color’s confirmation comes a month after we reported that the company was winding down its operations, which the company and its investors denied.
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To make things more official, Color on Monday started scrambling to return its assets to its stockholders, according to Harmeet Dhillon, the lawyer for the ex-Color employee suing the company. With Color shutting down, investors are definitely going to want their money back. Or at least whatever’s left of it.
Color’s closing marks the end of a strange, messy string of events for the company’s photo-sharing app, which never really managed to grab the attention of users.
Now, the company’s engineering team and assets are heading to Apple — another detail confirmed by yesterday’s suit. What Apple plans to do with its acquisition is anyone’s guess, but hopefully the company’s buy doesn’t come with any of Color’s drama.
