The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has acquired an indoor-GPS company WifiSLAM.

The report, quoting a person familiar with the deal, said Apple had paid around US $20 million for the Silicon Valley-based company. WifiSLAM is building real time apps,some of which will allow a user’s smartphone to pinpoint the location (and the location of your friends) in real-time to 2.5m accuracy using only ambient WiFi signals.

The WSJ report quoted an Apple spokesman as confirming the deal, adding that the company “buys smaller technology companies from time to time” and generally doesn’t discuss its plans.

The two-year-old startup has been offering the technology to application developers for indoor mapping & new types of retail and social networking apps. The company has a handful of employees, and its co-founders include former Google software engineering intern Joseph Huang.

Image credit: WifiSLam through Angel.co

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