Apple acquired Seattle-based cloud networking startup Union Bay Networks sometime in the last couple of months and has opened an office in the city that houses more than 30 engineers, reports GeekWire. The site uncovered Apple's acquisition and Seattle office after former Union Bay Networks co-founder Benn Bollay posted a job opening for a Systems Software Engineer that read "Ever wanted to work at Apple, but didn't want to live in Cupertino?"



Apple later confirmed the acquisition of Union Bay Networks to The Seattle Times, providing its standard acquisition statement: Apple "buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

Union Bay Networks was a stealth startup focused on "enabling the next generation of networking for cloud computing and software defined datacenters," and seven out of nine former employees are said to have been hired by Apple, moving to an unknown office location.

Apple's Seattle office is already home to more than 30 employees, and the company is hiring more, posting two software engineering positions in the city last week. Both positions mention a focus on the design and development of core infrastructure services, and both mention iCloud, suggesting Seattle is being positioned as the hub for Apple's future cloud development projects.