Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Apple has acquired about 100 companies in the past six years.
He said at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday that the company conducts such activities every three to four weeks.
Apple recently achieved its highest quarterly revenue ever, with revenue of $111.4 billion (£78.7 billion) in the first quarter of its fiscal 2021.
Cook said at the shareholder meeting that the acquisitions are mainly to obtain technology and talent.
Apple’s largest acquisition in the past decade was the $3 billion purchase of Beats Electronics, the headphone maker founded by rapper and producer Dr Dre.
Another notable acquisition was the music recognition software company Shazam, which was purchased for $400 million in 2018.
Apple often acquires smaller technology companies and then incorporates their innovations into its own products.
One example is PrimeSense, an Israeli 3D sensing company whose technology contributes to Apple’s FaceID.
Apple has also invested in back-end technology, but that may not be obvious to iPhone or Macbook users.
Deep pockets
Apple is a hugely profitable giant with a market cap of more than $2 trillion, so it has plenty of money to make acquisitions.
But even if Apple has acquired 100 companies in six years, it seems to be very picky about who it buys.
For example, Tesla founder Elon Musk recently revealed that he approached Cook about buying the company’s electric car business when Tesla was struggling in 2013.
Musk said Cook did not attend the meeting.
In terms of value, Apple’s acquisitions are actually much more restrained than those of many of its tech competitors.
Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26 billion, Amazon bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, and Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion.
The total value of Apple’s top ten acquisitions is still far less than any of these deals.
