Apple Buys Flash Company Anobit for $500 Million - Report

The rumored Apple-Anobit acquisition is indeed going down, according to an Israeli newspaper that reports on the $500 million buyout today.

Via All Things D comes word that Apple and Anobit have signed the papers by which the Cupertino giant gains full access to the latter’s flash memory technologies.

Apple relies on NAND Flash for all of its products, save for some desktop computers. In the not-too-distant future, all Apple products that carry on board storage will rely on solid state drives (SSD), both portable and desk-bound.

Apple is notorious for using its huge cash reserves to make small but important IP acquisitions which the company leverages to implement advanced technologies into its products.

One such example is the PA Semi acquisition from 2008 which yielded the A-series of processors. Another example is Siri, the voice-powered assistive technology that the Mac makers secured for just $200 million. Siri now totally sells the iPhone 4S.