Behind the success stories showcasing the successful products and services of large technology companies lie a number of factors that remain hidden even from practising business professionals. Apple alone files several times more patents per year than the total number of applications in Hungary.1 According to data from Insights by Greyb, a portal that analyses patent applications, Apple has a total of 116,492 patents worldwide in 2025. These patents belong to 50,015 unique patent families. Of the 116,492 patents filed, 98,761 are active, with 6,000–8,000 (!) patents per year in the 2010s, reaching its peak in 2021 with 11,537 (!) applications, and showing a downward trend afterwards (see Figure 1).

 

 

Another telling statistic is that Apple buys one startup every three to four weeks for millions or even billions of dollars. In an interview with the BBC in February 2021, CEO Tim Cook2 reported that Apple had acquired around 100 companies over the past six years, which it is integrating into the Cupertino-based technology behemoth. One of the most valuable additions to the portfolio was Beats Electronics, a headphone manufacturer associated with rapper and producer Dr Dre, which was acquired in 2014 for USD 3 billion. However, on a global level, there are acquisitions even larger than this astronomical sum, so it is no wonder that many technology startups aspire to nothing more than to end up in the portfolio of a technology giant after a few years of rapid growth, allowing their founders to "retire" in their thirties.

 

 

A similar observation was made by one of the former founders of IND Group, one of Hungary's most successful fintech startups. József Nyíri shared his post-acquisition experiences in an interview with Forbes magazine.4 At the time, he decided to remain with Misys after the transaction. For a year and a half, he tried to continue the practices that had proven successful at the startup company and negotiated with American clients in the US about the introduction of banking software packages that had proven successful in Hungary and Europe. However, he was seriously disappointed when the company's management rejected his project plan, which required further investment and had been compiled after a year of intensive sales and marketing activities. It was then that he realised that the other startup founders had made the right decision in leaving their former company relatively quickly after the acquisition. He understood that a large corporation thinks differently than a startup that is constantly striving for innovation. This is because once a corporate business model is proven, the logic of business and the concept of shareholder capitalism dictate that it should exploit market opportunities as efficiently as possible until demand for its products declines. Like many former startup founders, after mourning and letting go, the Hungarian entrepreneur sought new challenges in a manner typical of a true entrepreneur and tried his hand at seed-stage investment, from which he learned a great deal. He realised that all his investments could be considered a waste of money until the startup company identified the real customer pain that needed to be solved and then built a business around it with an appropriate business model. A particularly important conclusion is that every idea seems good until the startup can prove whether or not it can make money from it. With regard to the innovation activities of large companies, he believes that companies generating significant profits and results only embrace innovation when they see growing revenue-generating, innovative startups as noticeable competition. Typically, they acquire these startups to prevent them from taking away visible profits.