Apple Inc. is reported to have acquired Pop Up Archive, an Oakland, California-based startup that offered an online platform of tools for organizing and searching digital spoken words.

Neither company has confirmed or denied a deal has taken place, but Nieman Lab was the first to report the news. It said Apple’s response when asked for confirmation of the deal was its typical “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” the same statement Apple nearly always releases when it has indeed acquired a company.

Founded in 2012, Pop Up Archive primarily operated as a search platform for podcasts that used speech-to-text technology to index and find the content being searched for. In the company’s words “the Audiosear.ch platform (the company’s search engine) turns speech into text, indexes it, and analyzes it to create millions of data points (i.e. topics, entities, people, recommendations) … We help audio distributors, platforms, and advertisers improve listener experiences, audio discovery and content targeting.”

Adding to the idea that it has been acquired, the Pop Up Archive service is no longer available on its site, which states only, “Hey there! Pop Up Archive shut down operations and ended support on 11/28/17.” Apple typically moves to shut down companies once a deal is complete, suggesting that the acquisition would have closed likely in late November.

The acquisition will give Apple additional tools to enhance its podcast lineup at a time the company Steve Jobs built is losing market share to others in the market. Part of that decline may well be directly attributable to declining iPhone market share and an increase in podcast platform alternatives such as Spotify AB and Google LLC.

But as of May, Apple was still the largest podcasting platform provider online, with iTunes and its podcasting service maintaining strong support from podcast listeners. Enhancing that service to make sure it delivers the best service available online can only help Apple maintaining existing users and gain new ones going forward.

Prior to the acquisition, Pop Up Archive had raised $1.42 million in seed funding from investors that included FundersClub, SeedersClub, Bloomberg Beta and 500 Startups.

Photo: mattbuchanan/Flickr