Tim Cook: Apple has bought 20 to 25 companies in the past six months

Apple acquires a company every two to three weeks on average. That’s what CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with CNBC. In the past six months, the iPhone maker has acquired 20 to 25 companies. Apple does not disclose much about its acquisitions.

“We’re taking over everything we need that has a strategic interest,” Cook told CNBC. The goal of most acquisitions is to get the hands of employees or intellectual property. Apple does not disclose most of its acquisitions itself. Sometimes news of a takeover comes out when the company being bought by Apple discloses something about it.

According to Cook, Apple takes over a company every two to three weeks on average. In the past six months, however, that was 20 to 25 companies. That corresponds to an average of one acquisition per week.

Last year, Apple acquired Texture, a magazine reading application. That company’s expertise was used to start up Apple News+. In 2018, Apple also acquired Akonia Holographics. That start-up claimed to be able to make cheap and light ar headsets with a large viewing angle with its HoloMirror technology. This year, Apple is said to have acquired Pullstring, a company that makes speech software.

Apple has a cash reserve of more than $225 billion, but the company does not make many major acquisitions. The largest acquisition in recent history was that of Beats in 2014, for which Apple paid $3 billion. The music streaming service Apple Music is the result of that acquisition. Another relatively large acquisition was that of Shazam last year, but the exact acquisition amount has not been disclosed.