Apple may buy flash memory company Anobit for roughly $500 Million

Looks like Apple is out for some holiday shopping. We’ve just got word that Apple is considering buying Israel-based flash memory solutions company, Anobit for an estimated $400 to $500 million. If this actually pans out, it will be Apple’s biggest acquisition, since the company bought NeXt back in 1997, which is how the late Steve Jobs re-joined Apple.

Making flash better

Anobit doesn’t manufacture flash memory themselves, but simply provides solutions for enterprise and mobile markets. Their proprietary MSP (Memory Signal Processing) technology is designed to improve speed and performance, while driving costs down. Apple has been using their technology in their product for a long time now and devices like the iPhone, MacBook Air and iPad use it, too. Since more than fifty percent of Apple’s products rely on flash memory, it makes sense for Apple to own the company that helps them achieve the performance they get out of the iPhone or iPad, for instance. With the new Ultrabooks from Intel also relying on flash memory, we could see a huge surge in demand for flash- based storage, next year.