Apple is quietly buying companies left and right

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: Apple on average acquires a company every two to three weeks and has amassed approximately 20 to 25 businesses in the past six months alone. We don't hear about most of them, however, because they're largely talent hires or IP grabs.

In an interview with CNBC over the weekend, CEO Tim Cook said Apple is primarily looking for talent and intellectual property with its acquisitions. “We acquire everything that we need that can fit and has a strategic purpose to it,” Cook said.

Because many of the companies it buys are small, Apple doesn’t feel the need to announce each and every deal publicly. One of its biggest acquisitions in recent memory was of Beats which it paid $3 billion for in 2014.

The aggressive procurement style may remind some of Marissa Mayer’s spending spree after taking the helm of Yahoo years ago. Aside from the fact that Apple is in its prime and Yahoo was struggling to remain relevant, Apple has the money to make some moves. In its latest earnings report, the company said it had $225.4 billion in cash on hand, making it one of the most cash rich companies on the planet.

With all that money, some have called for Apple to spend a bit more freely and acquire a major company like Tesla or Netflix. The current strategy has worked so it's unlikely that we'll see any reckless spending just to appease critics.

Lead mock-up courtesy Getty Images

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79955-apple-quietly-buying-companies-left-right.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Basically, to get rich, all you need to do is start a company that APPEARS to be competitive with Facebook, apple or Google.

Then they'll come in with a briefcase filled with money and buy you out.

Simpsons did it.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Basically, to get rich, all you need to do is start a company that APPEARS to be competitive with Facebook, apple or Google.

Then they'll come in with a briefcase filled with money and buy you out.

Simpsons did it.

Yeah, but sometimes the buyout is hostile... like Bill Gates buying out Homer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H27rfr59RiE

 

[ghostf1re]

Can we all appreciate the fact that Dre went from full-blown piece of trash gangbanger to full-blown intelligent businessman? That right there is the American dream. He has been making all of the right moves since he stopping making music and got away from the nonsense.

 

[Danny101]

Hedgemony monopoly?

 

[lipe123]

Watch out, Apple is busy inventing things again! They have the best talent (for spending money and buying other's work)

 

[Uncle Al]

Actually one of the bigger reasons I dumped Apple stock. If they aren't going to keep their stock holders advised of how they are spending "our" money, they aren't trustworthy enough to invest in ......

 

[Hexic]

Can we all appreciate the fact that Dre went from full-blown piece of trash gangbanger to full-blown intelligent businessman? That right there is the American dream. He has been making all of the right moves since he stopping making music and got away from the nonsense.

I won’t disagree, but he was one hell of a producer in the 90’s. I think what happened, is that he’s an inherently intelligent man, and when he realized his producing career was eventually going to end he diversified with an adjacent market.

But yes, waking up and actually using his skills to continue on with a career is a great example of the American Dream.

 

[Udelh579]

Basically, to get rich, all you need to do is start a company that APPEARS to be competitive with Facebook, apple or Google.

Yeah, but it actually needs to be competitive to be seen as competitive

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Basically, to get rich, all you need to do is start a company that APPEARS to be competitive with Facebook, apple or Google.

Yeah, but it actually needs to be competitive to be seen as competitive

Without knowing what the companies are, it's hard to generalize, but the two normal reasons are...
1) to get their Intellectual property and patents to build out a new product. When Amazon wanted to build the Echo, they bought two companies Yap and Evi - Apple bought Nuance to make Siri. Google bought Youtube!

2) Companies buy smaller companies just so their competitors can't. Facebook had a messaging service, but What'sApp was a threat so they bought it.

I actually wonder if this is even news. Perhaps if these companies were all in the self-driving car business perhaps - or could indicate some other new product area for Apple that'd be pretty cool. It'd be nice to know what that 'strategic fit' is, as Tim Cook says.

 

[EClyde]

What would tech writers do without the word quietly?

 

[elementalSG]

Basically, to get rich, all you need to do is start a company that APPEARS to be competitive with Facebook, apple or Google.

Then they'll come in with a briefcase filled with money and buy you out.

Simpsons did it.

I actually once worked at a startup where the end goal was to get bought out by one of these guys lol.

 

[DelJo63]

M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) is how you grow wen you're flush with cash -- and we all know that describes Apple.

 

[Nocturne]

I wouldn't say Apple is in it's prime, in fact Id say they are past that, the computer division fails extensively despite the fiction of marketing and popular opinions, the fact they are buying all these companies is a clear sign they have no vision and are looking for one.

 

[elementalSG]

I wouldn't say Apple is in it's prime, in fact Id say they are past that, the computer division fails extensively despite the fiction of marketing and popular opinions, the fact they are buying all these companies is a clear sign they have no vision and are looking for one.

Indeed. Why would you need to go buy IP and other companies' products if you were already swimming with them inside the company? The M&A always picks up in tech companies when they have run out of ideas internally. But then Tim Cook was always an optimizer and not a visionary or inventor like Jobs.

 

[Nocturne]

Indeed. Why would you need to go buy IP and other companies' products if you were already swimming with them inside the company? The M&A always picks up in tech companies when they have run out of ideas internally. But then Tim Cook was always an optimizer and not a visionary or inventor like Jobs.

Agreed, but I will disagree with Jobs being a visionary and inventor, he was an amazing marketing director and knew what people wanted and how to sell them a product and experience. Jobs knew knew nothing about computers or electronics at a fundamental level nor was he a design engineer, he originally tanked Apple creating a computer based on marketing and not engineering, and because of that failure he was asked to resign, if you want perspective, Jerry Lawson the father of consoles originally was going to hire them for the Fairchild F development before Apple and he ended up telling both Woz and Jobs to leave because they weren't qualified and knew nothing about electronics as Jobs was a marketing man and Woz was a design engineer, you can look it up.

 

[elementalSG]

Agreed, but I will disagree with Jobs being a visionary and inventor, he was an amazing marketing director and knew what people wanted and how to sell them a product and experience. Jobs knew knew nothing about computers or electronics at a fundamental level nor was he a design engineer, he originally tanked Apple creating a computer based on marketing and not engineering, and because of that failure he was asked to resign, if you want perspective, Jerry Lawson the father of consoles originally was going to hire them for the Fairchild F development before Apple and he ended up telling both Woz and Jobs to leave because they weren't qualified and knew nothing about electronics as Jobs was a marketing man and Woz was a design engineer, you can look it up.

Perhaps Steve Jobs didn't have the technical skills of a Woz, but I don't know if it would be fair to say that "Jobs was a marketing man". Here's a story from an ex-Apple employee who worked under Jobs --> https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/...with-a-non-technical-background/#cf92eb21b1f5

Either way, I knew someone would have an issue with me writing that Jobs was the one leading Apple into the future, and I'm ok with that since we all have our own opinions. But then let's take a look at Apple post-Jobs because Tim Cook, a supply chain guru/optimizer, is now in charge. Well, let's just say that the last thing I ever thought Steve Jobs would do is believe that going into the super-overcrowded world of media services (like Tim Cook is doing right now) was the right way into the future for Apple.

 

[Nocturne]

Perhaps Steve Jobs didn't have the technical skills of a Woz, but I don't know if it would be fair to say that "Jobs was a marketing man". Here's a story from an ex-Apple employee who worked under Jobs --> https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/...with-a-non-technical-background/#cf92eb21b1f5

Either way, I knew someone would have an issue with me writing that Jobs was the one leading Apple into the future, and I'm ok with that since we all have our own opinions. But then let's take a look at Apple post-Jobs because Tim Cook, a supply chain guru/optimizer, is now in charge. Well, let's just say that the last thing I ever thought Steve Jobs would do is believe that going into the super-overcrowded world of media services (like Tim Cook is doing right now) was the right way into the future for Apple.

Oh make no mistake I'm not arguing with you about Jobs taking Apple into the future, he knew how to market and present it to people in a fashion it could be consumed as a premium product, something Apple failed on for years and years. I just wouldn't overstate him being anything more than that, people tend to give individuals more credit than they deserve in order to make a legacy seem larger than what it is.

 

[captaincranky]

I won’t disagree, but he was one hell of a producer in the 90’s. I think what happened, is that he’s an inherently intelligent man, and when he realized his producing career was eventually going to end he diversified with an adjacent market.

But yes, waking up and actually using his skills to continue on with a career is a great example of the American Dream.

Sean "Puffy" combs is a salient and similar example to Dr. Dre.

Both have succeeded possibly beyond their actual abilities or potential, via racial support and cultural identification.

In ,the case of Dre, his headphones, (although I myself am not brave enough to put on pair and turn them up), are most likely deviant spectrum, vastly low frequency enhanced junk.

They appeal to the "ghetto ear", whose "music" in large part consists of copious amounts of profanity, spoken to a rhythm box 3 or 4 note bass line.

Having lived through several generations of actual music, some better than others, I can reasonably and in an informed manner, call this hip hot, gangsta ghetto iteration, the trash which it is.

Having said that, African Americans will support African American entrepreneurs down to their last dollar.

The racial bias toward Barack Obama's presidential bid was undeniable, and carries over to various aspects of the choices black Americans make in spending their money as well:.

Fully 96 percent of black voters supported Obama and constituted 13 percent of the electorate, a 2-percentage-point rise in their national turnout. As in past years, black women turned out at a higher rate than black men.

So, IMHO Apple's decision to purchase "Beats", was purely racially motivated, in an attempt to "integrate" it's customer base, and to distance itself from the perceived "lily white yuppie only", perception of the nation in general. More briefly, it was simple, blatant, racial pandering.

 

[Nocturne]

Sean "Puffy" combs is a salient and similar example to Dr. Dre.

Both have succeeded possibly beyond their actual abilities or potential, via racial support and cultural identification.

In ,the case of Dre, his headphones, (although I myself am not brave enough to put on pair and turn them up), are most likely deviant spectrum, vastly low frequency enhanced junk.

They appeal to the "ghetto ear", whose "music" in large part consists of copious amounts of profanity, spoken to a rhythm box 3 or 4 note bass line.

Having lived through several generations of actual music, some better than others, I can reasonably and in an informed manner, call this hip hot, gangsta ghetto iteration, the trash which it is.

Having said that, African Americans will support African American entrepreneurs down to their last dollar.

The racial bias toward Barack Obama's presidential bid was undeniable, and carries over to various aspects of the choices black Americans make in spending their money as well:.

Fully 96 percent of black voters supported Obama and constituted 13 percent of the electorate, a 2-percentage-point rise in their national turnout. As in past years, black women turned out at a higher rate than black men.

So, IMHO Apple's decision to purchase "Beats", was purely racially motivated, in an attempt to "integrate" it's customer base, and to distance itself from the perceived "lily white yuppie only", perception of the nation in general. More briefly, it was simple, blatant, racial pandering.

Meh, Apple still has the stigma of immediate UNCOOL-UBERNERD!!! Image, as it did in the 80's, you my as well be rocking that plastic pocket protector and thick plastic black glasses with thick plastic lenses in them. Status symbol my @$$ it's just a bunch of dorks trying to look cooler than what they really are, and the non-nerds are essentially posers for the real nerd community as 90% of them still can't state the difference between RAM and Storage calling both memory.....LOL... The satire is just too much. People just need to plz stop already. Apple acquired Beats for the sole purpose of gaining the IP and technology it used to make terrible compressed garbage music sound decent particularly for their flat itu es, in and of itself Beats just gets laughed at by real Audiophiles anyways, posing all around I suppose.