Apple is not a wasteful company. If anything, it’s an extremely shrewd investor and the $200 billion it has in cash pile should be ample proof of that.
So what do they do with all that money? Turns out, Apple is quite the collector. It likes collecting other companies, and it does so in the typical hush-hush manner that it is famous for.Tim Cook recently said during Apple Earnings Call that they acquired 15 companies last year. And the acquisitions have been so low-key that the world doesn’t even know the identities of six of them!
While other tech giants, like Google Alphabet or Microsoft or Samsung, take pride in announcing their new deals, Apple likes to keep everything top secret. It lets the suspense build and then waits for the right opportunity to do a grand reveal. Such a drama queen!
So let’s look at the 9 companies we do know Apple has acquired and see what they could be up to.
- Camel Audio (Audio): Well, the music quality from them has always been great. If they want to make it better, who are we to complain?
- Semetric (Music Analytics): Looks like Apple really wants to push it in the audio department.
- FoundationDB (Database Software): Apple might say they don’t want your data, but the truth is … they do!
- LinX (Advanced Camera Technologies): Apparently 4K is not enough!
- Coherent Navigation (Mapping Software): Given the sorry state of Maps in iOS, this one really, really, makes sense!
- Mapsense (Mapping Visualization Software): Not really sure what’s going on here.
- VocallQ (Speech Technology): Is Siri going to get more talkative? Hopefully more efficient, too!
- Metaio (Augmented Reality): Wait, what!!?
- Percepito (Machine Learning Technology): The iPhone becomes sentient and the world as we know it comes to an end!
So, what does Apple do with all these companies that it acquires? Sometimes it will just subsume all the workings of the acquisition, break it down to essentials, and use the parts as it sees fit. Sometimes it will use the acquisition as is, without many changes (like it did with Beats).
And let us remind you — it’s not just companies that Apple’s splurging on. It has also been consistently poaching off high performing engineers and developers for quite some time now.
You have to realise that this is not just a hobby for Apple. It’s an investment. It is acquiring companies that fit into its expansion plans. What will happen to them is anybody’s guess, but we’re hoping that big things will come of this shopping spree!
