Apple has acquired 20 companies this year, including 7 purchased during Q4 FY2014
Apple has acquired 20 companies so far this year, including seven companies it purchased during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014.
As reported by MacRumors, the acquisition figure was announced by Apple at its Q4 FY2014 financial results conference call earlier today.
Given Apple’s strong reputation for secrecy, most of the tech giant’s acquisitions are unknown. Some, however, have been revealed through past reports.
Apple bought SnappyLabs, the one-man development team behind the popular burst photography app SnappyCam, in January and Burstly, the owner of the popular app testing platform TestFlight, in February.
Apple’s confirmed acquisitions in recent months include the micro-LED company LuxVue, the “social” search engine Spotsetter, the “Pandora for books” BookLamp, the “Pandora for talk radio” Swell, and the Newsstand-optimized digital magazine platform Prss.
But the biggest acquisition Apple has made this year is also the biggest acquisition it has ever made: its $3 billion purchase of Beats, including Beats Music and Beats Electronics, in May.
Not counting its Beats acquisition, Apple said at its previous earnings conference call in July that it had acquired at least 29 companies since the start of its 2014 fiscal year.
Apple, of course, purchases other companies to integrate their respective technologies into its current and future products and services. When confirming acquisitions, Apple releases the following standard statement: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
See also: After launching OS X Yosemite, Apple announces the Public Beta program will continue, Apple Store app update brings support for Apple Pay purchases, and Apple officially launches iOS 8.1, featuring Apple Pay, Continuity and more.
