Report: Apple Nears Purchase of Top Mobile Flash Memory Controller Maker

Anobit acquisition could be the biggest purchase of a hardware maker in Apple's historyApple, Inc. ( AAPL) can't hide its love flash. Apple is immersed in a over decade long passionate affair with NAND flash memory, which it uses for storage across all of its mobile devices and in its computer SSDs.

Apple Pulls an OCZ
Now Apple is reportedly in talks to absorb a major part of its flash supply chain, and is reportedly in talks to purchase Israeli flash memory fabless chipmaker Anobit.
Anobit is a small firm founded in 2006 in Herzeliya Pituach -- an affluent beach-side district on central Israel's Mediterranean coast. Today the company operates subsidiaries in the U.S. and South Korea. Its core business is the tiny chips that allow super-fast, reliable access to flash memory, flash memory controllers.
Apple already licenses Anobit's controllers for use in its iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.
A good flash controller is incredibly valuable to SSD makers or companies who use flash components in their devices. Just ask OCZ Technology Group Inc. ( OCZ), whose SSDs have been dominating the enthusiast market, thanks to their slick Indilinx controller, which suffers little of the bugginess of LSI Corp. (LSI) subsidiary SandForce's controllers.
OCZ apparently found the South Korean controller maker Indilinx so invaluable that it bought it (and its 20 patents) for $32M USD in stock. This purchase was followed in turn by LSI's $322M USD acquisition of SandForce, a deal driven by SandForce's broad market base, which offset its poor controller stability.

Now Apple is expected to follow in suit, potentially folding in Anobit to prevent competitors from gaining access to its technology. News of the deal broke [translated] from the the Israeli publication Calcalist.
Reportedly the acquisition price could hit as high as $400M-$500M USD, a boon for Anobit investors, who have thus far poured $97M USD in venture capital into the startup. The acquisition would also grant Apple control of Anobit's 21 patents (and the 74 more currently in the submissions process).