Apple has acquired around 100 companies in the last six years, according to the company’s CEO, Tim Cook, at the firm’s last shareholders meeting.
That it means that the tech giant acquires a company every three to four weeks. Why does he do this? Cook argued that the acquisitions are primarily aimed at acquiring technology and talent.
The largest acquisition over the past decade was Beats Electronics, a headphone-making firm founded by rapper and music producer Dr. . Dre, in the amount of $ 3, 000 million dollars.
Another high-profile purchase was the company Shazam, developer of a music recognition software , by $ 400 million dollars in 2018.
But the usual thing is that Apple buys small technology companies to incorporate the innovations in their own products .
An example is PrimeSense, an Israeli 3D sensor company whose technology contributed to Apple’s FaceID.
Apple has also invested in technology from support that is not so obvious to us iPhone or Macbook users.
Autonomous driving, podcasts and more
Apple’s list of acquisitions and investments is extremely varied.
Last year, the firm bought several artificial intelligence companies, a virtual reality events business, a payment processing startup and a podcast business, among others.
In 2019, Apple bought Drive.ai, an autonomous transportation company, in an effort to power its own foray into the area, while in 2016 acquired a stake of $ 1, 000 million dollars in Chinese service Didi Chuxing rideshare.
A big wallet
Apple is an immensely profitable giant that is valued at more than $ 2, 000 million dollars, which allows it to have enough resources to acquire smaller firms whose technologies are key in product development.
And it seems to be very selective in their purchases.
For example, Tesla founder Elon Musk recently revealed that he reached out to Cook to buy him the electric car business when he was in trouble at 2013 .
But Cook did not attend the meeting, Musk said.
Based on the amounts involved, Apple’s acquisitions are actually much more moderate than those of its tech rivals.
Microsoft paid $ 26, 10 million dollars for LinkedIn, Amazon paid $ 13, 700 million for Whole Foods and Facebook paid $ 19, 10 millions for WhatsApp.
However, when putting together the 10 Bigger purchases from Apple would be worth much less than any of those deals.
On the other hand, health The giant’s financial company has been in a good position: It recently posted its biggest revenue quarter of all time, with $ 111, 400 million dollars.
Buy innovation to develop products
Apple is considered the most innovative company in the world, according to the ranking published by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 2020.
The technological empire surpassed Alphabet (Google matrix) and Amazon , companies that question its leadership arguing that Apple copies the technology of others and that, therefore, it should not be considered as the most innovative firm.
So much so, that the more critical voices have come to say that Apple has never really invented anything.
Defenders of the firm maintain that the company has not only invented products and has an extensive patent registration history , but has also innovated in the way that incorporates technological developments to create a result that customers appreciate.
Ultimately, they say, innovating is not creating something from scratch. It is about creating new technologies from other technologies.
This is how it revolutionized the computer industry and reinvented smartphones, although it certainly was not the first to develop the business.
On the contrary, it entered the industry much later than other competitors, but with products that have been considered an advance in the development of new technologies.
However, the more critical voices point out that in recent years Apple has stagnated in its technological development , without introducing major modifications to its products or developing a completely new product.
The discussion is eternal and the positions are usually irreconcilable. But what is not a secret, as Tom Cook put it, is that the giant acquires technologies from smaller companies, a practice that is not uncommon when it comes to the technology industry.
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