Apple rumored to buy flash memory company for $500 million

Citing a Hebrew-language report, TechCrunch relayed on Tuesday that Apple plans to acquire the 200-employee Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in flash storage. If the deal comes to pass, it's believed to be the first acquisition for Apple with Tim Cook at the helm as CEO.

"Anobit provides flash storage solutions for enterprise and mobile markets, based on its proprietary MSP (which stands for 'Memory Signal Processing') technology," the report said. "Its solutions are designed to improve the speed, endurance and performance of flash systems while driving down the cost. Anobit's technology is comprised of signal processing algorithms that compensate for physical limitations of NAND flash, the company claims."

Apple is believed to already rely on Anobit's solutions for its flash-based products, including the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. Of the most interest to Apple is said to be Anobit's MSP20xx embedded flash controllers for mobile devices.

Apple has used its massive cash hoard to strategically invest in components and acquire companies that will give it a leg up on the competition. In 2005, Apple inked a major flash memory deal with Samsung, allowing Apple to build products with NAND flash including the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.

The company made a similar deal earlier this year, when Cook revealed that Apple had committed $3.9 billion to secret, long-term component contracts. Cook said the deals were a "fantastic" use of the company's cash reserves, but declined to say what components Apple had secured, citing competitive reasons.

If Tuesday's report is accurate, it would be a rare hardware-based acquisition for Apple. The company's last major buyout of a hardware company came in 2008, when Apple bought P.A. Semi for $278 million, paving the way for it to build custom ARM-based chips for the iPhone and iPad.