HTC has Dr Dre. Samsung now has Steve Kondik.

In other acquisition news, it appears Android developer extraordinaire, Steve Kondik A.K.A. Cyanogen, was picked up by Samsung Mobile for an undisclosed amount according the recent change in his “work” status today on Facebook. Seems Steve found himself a software engineering job for the Korean based company thanks to his exceptional work on CyanogenMod, a custom ROM supporting a broad range of devices built entirely from Android open source. CyanogenMod brings users a slightly enhanced “Google experience” to their phones, untouched by a lot of the UI fluff and changes found in many OEM devices like HTC’s Sense UI and Samsung’s TouchWiz.
Still unsure what this means for CyanogenMod (Steve assures us CM will remain a side project) or if we’re getting closers to a release of a Samsung branded “Cyanogen Phone,” seeing how Samsung recently provided the CyanogenMod team with a handful of Galaxy S II’s to tinker around with. (Source)