Apple's Anobit Acquisition Confirmed by Israeli Prime Minister

Apple has spent a reported half a billion dollars to acquire Anobit, a flash storage company in Israel.

Last week, we heard reports that Apple was thinking of buying itself a nice little flash storage company for Christmas. This week, the news of Apple's acquisition of Anobit, an Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in streamlining flash memory, was reported by Calcalist financial daily and then seemingly confirmed by the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.

Engadget reports that the news first appeared in the Calcalist, which valued the deal at $500 million, a figure that matches last week's rumors. The news report was then confirmed via a tweet from the Twitter account for the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel.

"Welcome to Israel, Apple Inc. on your 1st acquisition here. I'm certain that you'll benefit from the fruit of the Israeli knowledge," the tweet from Dr. Eitan Eliram, who manages the account, reads.

Neither Apple nor Anobit has commented on the deal, which is not unusual, as Cupertino often doesn't comment publicly on its acquisitions. Anobit represents one of only a handful of hardware companies acquired by Apple. This includes NeXT, which was founded by Steve Jobs after he was ousted from Apple, and PA Semi, a fabless semiconductor company that was acquired by Apple in April of 2008 for $278 million in cash.