http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/28/apple-announces-it-is-acquiring-beats-for-3-billion Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre to join Apple. Following several weeks of rumors, Apple has announced that it will acquire Beats Music and Beats Electronics in a deal valued at $3 billion. Beats founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple, though what their positions or responsibilities will be has yet to be detailed. Apple will gain Beats' popular headphone and speaker lines, as well as the its recently launched streaming music service, Beats Music. In a statement, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said that the company hopes to "create the most innovative music products and services in the world" as a result of the acquisition. Iovine also weighed in, emphasizing the two companies' shared investment in music, stating that Beats was inspired by "Apple's unmatched ability to marry culture and technology." The deal will consist of a $2.6 billion in cash, with another $400 million in vested stock. Apple expects the transaction to close, pending regulatory approvals, in Q4. The big question, of course, is what Apple intends to do with Beats' existing lines of products and the brand as a whole. According to Recode, Apple claims it will keep both the Beats Music and Beats hardware brands intact, but intends to "begin working the future together" as soon as the deal clears. In any case, it'll likely be months or even years before we see the fruits of the partnership, we've already got a few ideas.
My most recent phone (the HTC One M7) makes a point of having Beats audio, and comes with Beats earbuds. Definitely makes a difference in terms of sound quality (as compared to my old LG, and my wife's Samsung). I imagine that's about the last we'll be seeing of that in anything that's not a Baller-ass iPhone, FAMS.
That's cause HTC used to own 25% of Beats. They sold their portion for something like 300 mil last fall. They make great phones, but suck at making money!
