Apple Buys 3 To 4 Companies Per Week, Tim Cook Says

Dhir Acharya - Feb 24, 2021

Apple's notable acquisitions in 2020 included the Dark Sky weather app, NextVR and Spaces VR/AR startups, Mobewee mobile payments service, etc.

Over the past six years, Apple has bought about 100 small businesses in its corporate acquisition spree, according to Tim Cook’s statement at a virtual meeting on Tuesday.

As reported by Bloomberg, Apple’s CEO said that the company has been acquiring a small firm every 3-4 weeks. Its notable acquisitions in 2020 included the Dark Sky weather app, NextVR and Spaces VR/AR startups, Mobewee mobile payments service, among other companies.

The Cupertino-based company has tried hard to conceal the details of its acquisitions but some deals may be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Within six months before May 2019, Apple had already bought 20 to 25 companies. During the Tuesday meeting, Cook said:

“We’re not afraid to look at acquisitions of any size. Focus is on small, innovative companies that complement our products and help push them forward.”

Acquisition sprees by major companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have been scrutinized by antitrust regulators. In October 2020, it ứa reported that four firms that used to be underdog startups ended up being monopolies in the era of railroad tycoons and oil barons. The FTC demanded details on Apple’s acquisitions in 2020 but the tech giant tends to buy companies smaller than the threshold for regulators to step in. Most allegations of Apple’s anticompetitive behavior have focused on different issues of the App Store and iOS.

Last year, Tim Cook said that Apple evaded antitrust questions about its acquisitions as its “strategy has been to buy companies where we have challenges, and IP, and then make them a feature of the phone,” instead of taking over the competition.

During the Tuesday meeting, the CEO also claimed that the company does not dominate any markets.

“Apple doesn’t have a dominant position in any market we compete in, not in any product category, not in any service category, and not in software or apps. This competitive marketplace pushes all of us to be better. So while scrutiny is always fair, accusations like these fall apart after a reasonable examination of the facts.”