Apple (AAPL) has a new deal chief. Steve Smith will lead mergers and acquisitions. He replaces Adrian Perica, who ran the function for 17 years.
The bigger signal is the reporting line. Perica answered to former CEO Tim Cook. Smith will report to CFO Kevan Parekh, which puts M&A back inside the finance division.
What Changed at Apple
- Smith: previously senior director of corporate development and a longtime Perica deputy, per AppleInsider, citing Bloomberg.
- Perica: moves full-time to services under Eddy Cue, keeping iCloud, Fitness+ and Apple News. Cue’s memo said Apple has “big plans for services.”
- Timing: one of the first leadership moves under John Ternus, who became CEO on September 1.
- No deal: Apple announced no acquisition alongside the change.
Apple Buys Its Own Stock, Not Companies
TIKR’s repurchase series shows $96.67 billion in fiscal 2025 and about $755 billion over the past 10 fiscal years, but the series includes tax payments associated with net settlement of employee equity awards. Apple’s cash-flow statement separately reports $90.71 billion of share repurchases for fiscal 2025—about 30 times the $3 billion price of its 2014 Beats acquisition.
The balance sheet shows the same priority. Cash and short-term investments fell from $100.56 billion in fiscal 2019 to $54.70 billion in fiscal 2025 as Apple kept returning cash to shareholders.
Conclusion
My view is this, Apple’s substantial buybacks provide a useful benchmark for assessing any large acquisition. Moving M&A under the CFO changes oversight, but the reshuffle alone does not establish that Apple has raised its acquisition hurdle or changed its appetite for large deals.
The next data point is Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter report on November 2, which will show its full-year fiscal 2026 repurchase spending.
Want to see how Apple splits its cash between buybacks and everything else? Pull up the same charts on TIKR for free and track the next quarter yourself. Learn more here.
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
