Apple acquisitions significantly decline, regulatory filings show

Apple’s spending on acquisitions has significantly declined over 2021 and 2022, the company’s regulatory filings show. Apple invested some $1.5 billion on acquisitions in fiscal 2020, but that figure plummeted to just $33 million in 2021 and $169 million in the first nine months of its 2022 fiscal year.

Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:

Just last February, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook noted that Apple had acquired 100 companies in the past six years — more than one a month on average.
That deal flow has slowed to a trickle. Apple only made two known acquisitions in 2022: the UK-based startups Credit Kudos and AI Music. The first of those two companies developed technology for calculating credit scores, which will likely aid Apple’s efforts to build its own infrastructure for financial products. The latter business used artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music.
Apple’s only known takeover in 2021 was the purchase of Primephonic, a classical-music streaming service.
It ended last quarter with $179 billion in cash and marketable securities, and it could move quickly if it decides to do a deal. Cook attended last month’s Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, a popular spot for brokering megamergers. For now, though, the company has opted to put money toward stock buybacks and dividends.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and it generally does not discuss its purpose or plans.