Apple has acquired about 100 companies in the past six years, said the company’s chief executive, Tim Cook. That means buying a company every three to four weeks, he told Apple’s annual shareholders’ meeting.
Apple recently had the highest revenue quarter of all time, with $ 111.4 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021.
Tim Cook told the shareholders’ meeting that the acquisitions are mainly aimed at acquiring technology and talent.
Apple’s largest acquisition in the last decade was the $ 3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics, the headphone maker founded by rapper and producer Dr Dre.
Another profile acquisition was the music recognition software company Shazam, for $ 400 million in 2018.
Most often, Apple buys smaller technology companies and then incorporates its innovations into its own products.
An example is PrimeSense, an Israeli 3D detection company whose technology contributed to Apple’s FaceID.
In the last year, Apple has bought several artificial intelligence (AI) companies, a business with virtual reality events, a payment startup and a business with podcasts, among others.
In 2019, Apple bought Drive.ai, an autonomous car company, in an effort to boost its own research in that technology.
But even though it has bought 100 companies in six years, Apple seems to be very selective about what it buys.
For example, Tesla founder Elon Musk recently revealed that he approached Cook to buy his electric car business in early 2013, but was turned down.
Measured by value, Apple’s acquisitions are actually much smaller than those of many of its technology rivals.
Microsoft paid $ 26 billion for LinkedIn, Amazon paid $ 13.7 billion for Whole Foods, and Facebook paid $ 19 billion for WhatsApp.
Apple’s top ten acquisitions would be worth much less than any of these transactions.
