California-based Apple is said to recently have acquired Anobit Tenchnologies Ltd. for approximately $390 million. Anobit - which is based in Israel - makes a flash memory drive part used in Apple's top product, the iPhone.

Apparently, Anobit was seeking a much larger sum for its acquisition - more in the range of $500 million. The international negotiations, however, resulted in the much lower acquisition price that Apple will have to pay in the deal. Apple is not disclosing the details of the transaction, and failed to discuss the purpose or the plans for this relatively small technology company.

Because Apple buys the most amount of flash memory worldwide, what is clear is that with this acquisition, Apple has secured a key component for the iPhone and the iPad.

Interestingly, this is the first time the California company has made an acquisition in Israel, even though other rival tech firms have already established business operations in Israel.

Also of interest is that Israel actually has the second largest number of startups per capita in the world, along with the most companies traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market outside of North America, second only to China.

This relatively smaller acquisition is in line with Apple's previous approach of making strategic acquisitions of smaller privately-held companies. With these types of transactions Apple is able to get exactly what it wants, whether it be key employees or a certain technology, both of which are expected to blend into Apple's business model, rather than as an expansion into a new area.

Source: Bloomberg, "Apple Said to Acquire Israel's Anobit Technologies for About $390 Million," Shoshanna Solomon and Jonathan Ferziger, Jan. 11, 2012