As someone who has been through an acquisition, it's a liminal space. You remain the employee of the company being purchased, right up until the purchase goes t

As someone who has been through an acquisition, it's a liminal space. You remain the employee of the company being purchased, right up until the purchase goes through, which is after the offers from the purchaser are extended to people. The amount of people coming over can be part of the due dillegence and terms of the deal. (e.g. n engineers are to be purchased, but all the engineers suck, so the deal is off, or the price is reduced.) Apple never extended an offer, or an offer was not accepted. Either way, they were not at any point an employee of Apple, or any other company.