Cloud Computing: Apple Reportedly Interested in Buying The Fancy
August 6, 2012
Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Maureen O’Gara.
Apple is in talks to acquire Pinterest rival, The Fancy, according to Business Insider. The fast-growing social e-commerce site is backed by Twitter creator and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.
The 20-man start-up calls itself "part store, blog, magazine, and wishlist" and actually has things for sale. Business Insider says it is "much farther along in linking its users to transactions" than Pinterest and takes 10% of any purchases…
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who’s not the type, started using the site after meeting its CEO Joe Einhorn at the Allen & Co Sun Valley conference earlier this year. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also taken a fancy to it, so to speak.
The Fancy raised $10 million on a reported $100 million valuation last fall on top of the $8.7 million it previously got.
Business Insider thinks The Fancy could help Apple build e-commerce into its operating system and let developers hook into it. It could leverage the 400 million credit cards it has on file at iTunes.
Amusingly, The Fancy lives in offices above an Apple store in New York.