There's no reason for Apple to buy Color. A couple of patents on recently invented stuff? Unlikely. Buying the patents would make sense, not buying the company. Acquire a team? Why not just hire them? Is the team really that attached to a company going nowhere? So I call this rumor nonsense. On the other hand, if this rumor is true it says a lot about Apple management and none of it good.
$XXM is a drop in the bucket for Apple - they could fund 10x that without blinking if the patents were deemed to be worth it. They have 10000x that in the bank already.