Apple Has Dramatically Slowed Its Pace of Corporate Acquisitions

[MacRumors]

The pace of Apple's acquisitions has "dramatically" slowed over the past two years, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

Regulatory filings show that Apple spent $33 million on payments related to acquisitions during the last fiscal year and $169 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. This is down from $1.5 billion in the fiscal year of 2020. Apple previously acquired a company every three to four weeks, with technology from startups forming the basis of features like multitouch, Siri, and Face ID, but the speed of the company's dealmaking has apparently now "slowed to a trickle."

The UK-based startups Credit Kudos and AI Music were Apple's only two known acquisitions in 2022 so far, intended to bolster the company's infrastructure for financial products and its ability to generate music with artificial intelligence. In 2021, classical music streaming service Primephonic was the company's only known acquisition, forming the basis of an upcoming classical-focused Apple Music app.

The reduced dealmaking stands in contrast to other tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, which this year agreed to purchase Activision Blizzard Inc. for $69 billion, Mandiant Inc. for $5.4 billion, and IRobot Corp. for $1.65 billion, respectively.

Increased regulatory scrutiny is said to be partly responsible for Apple's significantly reduced acquisitions, but the company is also reportedly scaling back spending more broadly, slowing hiring and shrinking expenditures in various departments. Gurman said that it is "a sign the tech giant is being more choosy in the face of a shaky economy and heightened government scrutiny."

Article Link: Apple Has Dramatically Slowed Its Pace of Corporate Acquisitions

 

[headlessmike]

Who needs to buy talent when the forums here on MacRumors are full of great ideas at no cost at all to Apple‽

 

[BootsWalking]

Many companies do acquisitions when the organic growth from their core products has stopped. Apple is not one of those companies.

 

[JM]

Who needs to buy talent when the forums here on MacRumors are full of great ideas at no cost at all to Apple‽

New membership perk alert: a “thank-you” shoutout at the end of the next pre-recorded Apple event.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Who needs to buy talent when the forums here on MacRumors are full of great ideas at no cost at all to Apple‽

Hahaha, that’s a very good point. I have a feeling Apple visits this site regularly and read all the comments. Based on that innovative ideas are being implemented.

 

[I7guy]

Nit to mention the legal, political, financial and supply chain advice. A chimpanzee could do Tim Cook’s job. /s

However, that acquisitions has slowed means exactly what?

 

[x86dude]

Good. These acquisitions are usually a big waste of money.
And yes, I have seen it from the inside of big tech.

 

[Razor_Crest]

Seems like Apple is in a good place across the board and they're ready for anything to be thrown at them. Also, this doesn't necessarily mean that development is slowing at Apple, it just means that they are in a place where they have anything they need or they are planning for a larger purchase.

 

[MajorFubar]

Another 'no news' story from Mark 'I guess I need to write something' Gurman.

 

[antiprotest]

Who needs to buy talent when the forums here on MacRumors are full of great ideas at no cost at all to Apple‽

You might be sarcastic but this is not entirely false. The problem is that Apple would not listen.

 

[headlessmike]

You might be sarcastic but this is not entirely false. The problem is that Apple would not listen.

Market research can of course include scouring the internet for good ideas. But there's a big step between that and a finished product.

 

[mrsebsin]

So Apple is cutting back on innovating, got it.

Jokes aside, this feels more like Apple’s C Suite is tightening the belt for the recession ride out.

 

[HappyDude20]

I’m surprised Apple hasn’t yet tried to acquire MacRumors considering all the high quality rumors.

 

[Satjiv's one click]

 

[Abazigal]

Their previous acquisitions had a lot to do with AR glasses and automobiles. My guess is that Apple feels they have most of the tech / talent they need. Nor does Apple do major acquisitions for the sake of revenue or users. This is another example of people making the mistake of thinking that Apple is doomed simply because it isn’t doing what the rest of the industry is.

 

[falkon-engine]

Apple needs to acquire a competent UI designer cause the current iteration of stage manager ain’t it.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I’m surprised Apple hasn’t yet tried to acquire MacRumors considering all the high quality rumors.

I'm surprised too. MacRumors is what drives Apple sales by a big margin. Everyone seems to come over here.

 

[jimbobb24]

This could be entirely related to the world wide pandemic changing the landscape for acquisitions. I would watch for more than the two weirdest years in the past 50 before drawing conclusions.

 

[Realityck]

Regulatory filings show that Apple spent $33 million on payments related to acquisitions during the last fiscal year and $169 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. This is down from $1.5 billion in the fiscal year of 2020. Apple previously acquired a company every three to four weeks, with technology from startups forming the basis of features like multitouch, Siri, and Face ID, but the speed of the company's dealmaking has apparently now "slowed to a trickle."

There are a lot of worldwide factors effecting this. You have inflation in the USA, people worried about possible recession, the Ukraine War causing drop in sales in EU as well as a temporary price hike on Oil that effected transportation costs. The off and on Apple product manufacturers being closed in China causing Apple to reduce estimated goods being sold. Through all of this Apple was careful making acquisitions, restarting normal workplace activities, retaining a large workforce. One would suspect there also isn’t technology they need to acquisition right now.

 

[neuropsychguy]

This could be entirely related to the world wide pandemic changing the landscape for acquisitions. I would watch for more than the two weirdest years in the past 50 before drawing conclusions.

What? You don’t want to extrapolate based on two (outlier) time points?

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/extrapolating.png

 

[rpmurray]

I'm thinking that the bigwigs at Apple are afraid their bonuses would be negatively impacted by more acquisitions.

Isn't Bloomberg the rag that reported that China was inserting surveillance chips into motherboards, with absolutely no proof or corroboration, and then doubled down on it and refused to retract the article?

 

[gsurf123]

Slow down is probably related to them not finding anything they need to buy or sellers who think their companies worth more than it really is.

 

[Mojohanna32]

Many companies do acquisitions when the organic growth from their core products has stopped. Apple is not one of those companies.

Most companies do aquistions based on their strategic goals regardless of where their organic growth sits. I think this is more of a slow down related to regulatory scrutiny. Everytime you open a web page, Apple is being taken to task for one reason or another.

 

[BootsWalking]

Most companies do aquistions based on their strategic goals regardless of where their organic growth sits. I think this is more of a slow down related to regulatory scrutiny. Everytime you open a web page, Apple is being taken to task for one reason or another.

Certainly some companies do, but many don't, and I wouldn't classify it as anywhere near most companies. For instance, look at the examples cited in this article. Do you think Microsoft buying Activision was a strategic goal rather than just buying revenue?

 

[BeefCake 15]

Hahaha, that’s a very good point. I have a feeling Apple visits this site regularly and read all the comments. Based on that innovative ideas are being implemented.

What should they call the position of those in charge in reading the forums and reporting back to Tim?