Apple in talks to buy flash storage maker Anobit

13 Dec 2011

Apple's MacBook Air

Apple is understood to be in talks with a view to acquiring Israel-based Anobit, a maker of flash storage technology, for up to US$500m.

Anobit’s flash drive technology uses signal processing to boost performance and its technology is widely used in the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.

Final negotiations are taking place and the California technology powerhouse could be willing to pay between US$400m and US$500m for the company.

According to a report in the daily newspaper Calcalist, Apple is interested in using Anobit’s technology to enhance the performance of its top mobile devices and could result in memory within iPads and MacBooks being doubled.

Anobit is now in the middle of a financing round and has so far raised US$76m from a number of venture capital companies, including Intel Capital.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com