CNBC

A recent report by CNBC reveals that Apple has been conducting quiet mergers and acquisitions of smaller companies to boost its business. The report quotes the information shared by Tim Cook, CEO of Apple to its shareholders in February, highlighting its acquisition of 100 companies in the last six years. Well, if we try referring to the Wikipedia list, Apple has acquired almost 55 companies from 2015 to 2020. Where did the other acquisitions vanish? 

Apple’s largest acquisitions in recent times were of Beats Electronics worth USD3 billion. 

Apple, a leading global tech giant has never been very open about its mergers and acquisitions. Analysts have admitted that it is particularly difficult to trace and track Apple’s movements in general. 

In an interview with CNBC, Tim Cook revealed that Apple primarily looks for talents and intellectual property in these small company acquisitions. “We acquire everything that we need that can fit and has a strategic purpose to it. And so we acquire a company on average, every two to three weeks,” he added in the interview. Apple, in this way, is performing acquihires. Acquihires is the process of buying out a company for its skills, rather than its products, it becomes part acquisition and part hiring. People who have participated in Apple’s acquisition process and are part of the tech giant now told CNBC that Apple warns the newly acquired employees to not update their LinkedIn profiles and focuses on the number of technical employees. They say that Apple usually values a company based on its technical talent pool. 

According to Forbes, Apple currently has a market cap of USD 2.19 trillion, and Apple recently announced the plan to accelerate its US investments by USD 430 billion and add more than 20,000 jobs across the country in the coming five years. Acquihire is adopted by many tech giants. However, Apple’s strategy is unique since its acquisitions are usually focused on smaller transactions. 

If we thoroughly go through the acquisitions made by Apple, we would get an insight into its method. That is, some of the company’s acquisitions, are aimed at developing or integrating new technology or product. For example, Apple acquired Siri at the beginning of the last decade for almost USD 200 million from SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center. The product was a spin-off from the actually developed design by SRI International. Another notable acquisition is of NextVR, a VR broadcasting startup during last year. Reports suggest that this buy-out was aimed at boosting its pipeline projects on AR and VR. 

The CNBC report also reveals that Apple does not deploy bankers for these small acquisitions and instead their M&A team performs due diligence, interviews, and transactions. Apple has always managed to slip away from disclosing its business expansions by stating the cliche dialogue, “we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” Although, the CNBC report might shake the internet a bit considering the valuable statements from the internal structure of the company and its steep growth.