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Apple Confirms Acquisition of Israeli Flash Memory Firm Anobit [Updated]

Tuesday January 10, 2012 4:42 pm PST by Eric Slivka
Bloomberg reports that Apple has confirmed last month's news from Israel that the company had acquired flash memory firm Anobit. The confirmation came in the form of Apple's standard boilerplate statement used in addressing acquisitions, and did not include details on the purchase or Apple's plans for the company.
Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, said today that the purchase had been made, while declining to elaborate. The statement confirmed a December report from in the Israeli newspaper Cacalist.

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Dowling said in a telephone interview.
Apple reportedly paid $400-500 million for Anobit, but neither Apple nor Anobit has confirmed the purchase price.

The report notes that Anobit is currently responsible for a key flash memory controller for the iPad and iPhone, and Apple likely opted to bring the company's expertise in house in order to draw more heavily on the Anobit's expertise, increase efficiencies, and exert greater control over a component important to the functionality of iOS devices.

Update: Bloomberg reports that Apple paid about $390 million for Anobit in a deal that was not finalized until January 6.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) acquired Anobit Technologies Ltd. for about $390 million, paying below the price sought by the Israeli maker of a flash-memory drive part for the iPhone, people familiar with the purchase said.

Negotiations continued for more than two weeks after Israel’s Calcalist newspaper reported Dec. 20 that Apple bought Herzliya-based Anobit for as much as $500 million. Apple finally signed the agreement Jan. 6 to buy the Israeli company, according to two Anobit shareholders, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Apple didn’t want details disclosed.


[ 66 comments ]


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Peace
98 months ago
Pretty soon Apple is going to make all their components themselves.

Good move Apple.
Rating: 11 Votes
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pgiguere1
98 months ago

I think this means that apple has a true desire to make all of their products flash based - and only flash based - in the coming years. Hopefully this will mean that we will start to see larger capacities at smaller prices, but I hope that Apple doesn't take a cue from the MB Air and start to install flash memory on the motherboard. Hopefully this isn't another step in Apple's attempt to make a machine that is completely closed for the user.


If I'm not mistaken, only the RAM is soldered to the motherboard on the current MBA and the SSD is still user replaceable.
Rating: 8 Votes
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gnasher729
98 months ago

You would think with the amount of cash they have, they would purchase more than just 'a few' small business'.


Why would they? Any acquisition has a huge cost beyond the money paid; the company has to be integrated, you have to make sure everything keeps running smoothly because you don't want the important people in the company jump ship, and so on. Apple is very careful only to buy companies that can directly contribute to improving Apple's business. And there are not many of them.


I gotta wonder how cheap the labor is in Israel to make this a good option.

Or maybe I'm missing something


You are missing something. What counts isn't how cheap the labour is in Israel, but how good their universities are.
Rating: 7 Votes
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thenerdal
98 months ago

Heck, Microsoft itself was purchased from another company.

Mrs. Gates (Billy's mom) basically bought her trust fund baby a computer company that wrote the precursor to PC-DOS. Not only that, from her charity activities (she was from one of Seattle's oldest banking families), she knew someone who sat on IBM's board of directors and got Big Blue to look at Sonny Boy's operating system (which would eventually become the primary OS of the IBM PC).

Well, Junior took the ball and ran with it until the EU and US DOJ started poking around for antitrust practices. Mama Gates told Sonny Boy to loosen the purse strings, not be such a tightwad. By this time, he was wise enough to listen to Mom and she was the initial executive director of the Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates is a very important philanthropist, but let's not hide anything. Microsoft had a chance because his mom made some very strategic moves early in her son's professional endeavors.


That's not true.

----------

Unlike Google and Microsoft, they don't need to buy very many things out because they are creative. Microsoft, for instance, bought Office from another company. Google bought Motorola Mobility.[COLOR="#808080"]


Actually, Microsoft didn't buy Office.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Kaibelf
98 months ago

You would think with the amount of cash they have, they would purchase more than just 'a few' small business'.


That's the difference between being smart with money and being a debt-laden moron who spends everything the minute it comes in.
Rating: 6 Votes
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lilo777
98 months ago



No more Sammyflash


You are being naive. Anobit does not make flash and neither does Apple. Merge two companies not making flash memory and you get what? No flash memory. You need FABs for that and only Samsung has those (and spending $5..10 billion dollars annually to update those). Spending $500 million these days just buys you some patents and that's what this purchase is.
Rating: 6 Votes
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kolax
98 months ago
This Israeli cool news.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Apple...
98 months ago
This is now Apple's largest acquisition, ousting NeXT. Huh. ;)
Rating: 5 Votes
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ProVideo
98 months ago

Noticed Anobit's website is no longer available-it just simply says "service unavailable". Perhaps this due to Apple's acquisition of it.

No Sticky?
Rating: 5 Votes
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ericinboston
98 months ago

Heck, Microsoft itself was purchased from another company.

Mrs. Gates (Billy's mom) basically bought her trust fund baby a computer company that wrote the precursor to PC-DOS. Not only that, from her charity activities (she was from one of Seattle's oldest banking families), she knew someone who sat on IBM's board of directors and got Big Blue to look at Sonny Boy's operating system (which would eventually become the primary OS of the IBM PC)...<blah blah blah blah blah blah blah removed by Eric>



Nice story. Too bad it has absolutely nothing to do with the person you quoted...or this topic.

Besides, sounds like you're bitter that a company 30+ years ago was helped founded by a friend of a friend. Gee....that's never happened in the history of mankind. Ever hear the phrase, "it's who you know...not what you know?" That phrase is probably applicable to 100% of every company "starting up". You can have the coolest invention in the history of the world, but you have to start SOMEWHERE with SOMEONE to listen and invest in your company.
Rating: 5 Votes

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