Apple Rumored To Buy Flash Memory Company
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In a rare move, Apple is reportedly about to buy Israeli-based Anobit at a sticker price of between $400 and $500 million. Apple is not known for buying hardware companies. If this rumor is true, it begs the question, why?
Anobit is a semiconductor hardware design company that specializes in flash storage. The company, as reported by Hebrew-language news organization Calcalist, is in talks with Apple for a buyout. This kind of bit ticket purchase is not common for Apple.
The computer giant has not made a lot of hardware company purchases in its lifetime. Anobit provides flash storage solutions for enterprise and mobile markets using a proprietary design for Memory Signal Processing (MSP) technology.
The MSP technology is designed to improve speed, endurance and performance of flash storage systems, which is comprised of signal processing algorithms that compensate for physical limitations of NAND.
According to Calcalist, Apple already uses Anobit technology for the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air product line. South Korean semiconductor memory designer Hynix is said to currently be using Anobit’s technology for its flash memory chip, which is being used in the iPhone 4S.
According to TechCrunch, Apple is probably interested in Anobit for its MSP-powered MSP20xx embedded flash controllers for smartphones and tablets, which can significantly boost memory performance. The company also has 21 granted patents and 74 in the patent office.
Is Apple making a move to corner the market on the MSP technology? If the computer giant buys Anobit and its nearly 100 patents, what kind of resistance do non iOS-based devices have to worry about? Presumably, Apple is looking to gain a little more control over what goes into its devices. The company is notorious for having control issues. By owning its own flash memory solution, iPhones and iPads may see some upgrades with the upcoming iPhone 5 and iPad 3.
Anobit employs some big named executives. Co-founder Prof. Ehud Weinstein was previously co-founder and CEO of Libit Signal Processing, which Texas Instruments acquired in 1999. The company’s other co-founder and Anobit’s president, Ariel Maislos previously co-founded Passave, which was acquired by PMC Sierra in 2006. Apple may just be repositioning itself to be in league with some big players in the tech industry. Only time will tell.
