A look back at Apple's 2013 acquisitions
During Apple's earnings conference call yesterday, Tim Cook noted that Apple during the fiscal 2013 year acquired a total of 15 companies.
Historically, Apple's acquisition strategy has focused on snatching up smaller companies that house either personnel or technology that clearly fit into Apple's product roadmap. In other words, Apple doesn't acquire companies merely because they have cool technology or because they happen to be a passing fad. Apple's acquisitions are strategic.
Looking back over the past 12 months, Apple's acquisitions that we know of don't quite add up to 15. A number of them have been discovered, however, and below is a quick rundown of every Apple acquisition that we've been made aware of during the last 12 months.
WiFiSLAM -- March 2013
One of the more interesting acquisitions Apple made in 2013 was its purchase of WiFiSLAM, a company specializing in indoor GPS technology. WiFiSLAM's technology leverages WiFi signals to provide users with precise mapping data within buildings.
Locationary -- July 2013
Locationary is a Toronto-based startup that Apple acquired in July of 2013. Dubbed a "Wikipedia for local business listings," Locationary leverages crowd-sourced data to ensure that its database of local business listings and area points of interest are up to date and accurate.
Hopstop -- July 2013
This past summer, Apple acquired Hopstop, a popular public transit app that gives users detailed transit directions across 600 cities throughout the world. We can only hope that Apple with iOS 8 will update their Maps app to include built-in transit navigation.
Passif Semiconductor -- August 2013
On August 1, former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin broke the news that Apple had acquired Passif Semiconductor, a wireless chip provider specializing in Bluetooth low energy technologies.
Embark -- August 2013
Embark is yet another transit app Apple swallowed up in 2013. According to Lessin, Embark's technology will be "directly integrated" into Apple's own mapping software. Here's hopin'.
Matcha.tv -- August 2013
Apple in mid-August acquired a video discovery and recommendation service dubbed Matcha.tv. The Matcha.tv iOS app aggregated viewing options from TV listings and a slew of online streaming sites. Rumor has it that Apple purchased Matcha.tv after determining that its proprietary TV recommendation algorithm was best in class.
AlgoTrim -- August 2013
With summer winding down, Apple purchased a Swedish-based data-compression company aptly called AlgoTrim.
Cue -- October 2013
In October of 2013, Apple hired Eddy Cue. Kidding, of course. But earlier this month Apple did acquire a personal assistant app called Cue. Cue works by scanning a user's internet accounts and aggregating pertinent information into an single "intelligent" snapshot.
