Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine are going to be waking up with really big smiles on their faces this morning.
It wasn’t exactly the world’s best kept secret having been leaked to the media three weeks ago, but yesterday Apple completed the largest and most high-profile acquisition in their history when securing the purchase of Beats Electronics and Music for three billion dollars. Let us just repeat that in case it didn’t register the first time. THREE BILLION DOLLARS.
Well, when you break it down it’s actually €2.6billion and $400 million worth of Apple Stock (pfft) that Apple paid to take over Beats’ music streaming service and the company’s audio equipment, including the ubiquitous and highly renowned Beats by Dre headphones.
The founders of Beats Electronics, music mogul Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, will both have so far undetermined executive roles in Apple’s music divisions and Apple CEO Tim Cook will hope that the deal staves off the threat that music streaming services, such as the one established by Beats, had on the position of iTunes in the market.
Cook posted the following picture of the major parties in the deal looking quite happy with themselves last night…
Sharing a laugh with Jimmy, Dre, and @cue. Excited to welcome the #Beats team to #Apple. It’s all about the music. pic.twitter.com/ZwyWgHFwhO
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 28, 2014
… and while we hate to argue with Tim (and Jessie J), it’s kind of about the money as well. Isn’t that right Dr.Dre and Jimmy Iovine?
Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine right now. pic.twitter.com/N9vtla9evb
— Nick Bilton (@nickbilton) May 28, 2014
