Apple finally announced yesterday that it is buying Beats for $3 billion. This is by far the largest acquisition Apple has made, but is representative of a recent uptick in purchases by Apple, and this can largely be attributed to a man by the name of Adrian Perica, the head of mergers and acquisitions at Apple. He was brought on in 2009 after Apple lost out to Google in an effort to buy advertising giant AdMob. According to a profile of Perica by Businessweek, Perica has transformed how Apple approaches acquisitions. Before Perica showed up, Apple would make purchases based on the whims of Steve Jobs. Now Perica has a team of over 100, including many former investment bankers and MBAs.