Tim Cook Reveals Apple Buys a Company Every Few Weeks

In an interview from Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting over the weekend, Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Becky Quick that on average, Apple acquires a company every two to three weeks. He continued that Apple has bought approximately 20 to 25 companies in the past six months alone.

Apple often doesn’t announce these deals because the companies are small and Apple is “primarily looking for talent and intellectual property,” Cook said during the interview.

In its fiscal second-quarter earnings statement, Apple reported a $225.4 billion cash hoard, making it one of the most cash-rich companies in the world. The company has pledged to contribute $350 billion to the U.S. over five years through expansion and taxes on repatriated cash:

Cook said that after investing in initiatives like its new $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, the company turns its attention and spending to other goals.

“If we have money left over, we look to see what else we [can] do,” Cook said. “We acquire everything that we need that can fit and has a strategic purpose to it. And so we acquire a company on average, every two to three weeks.”

Apple’s largest acquisition in recent memory was its $3 billion purchase of Beats back in 2014.