Apple's Acquisition of Beats Could Be Delayed Because of Valuation, Roles, and More
Last week, reports indicated that Apple's acquisition of Beats would not be finalized until this week. With the week ending and no deal having been announced, a new Billboard report offers insight into what could be holding up the deal.
Billboard's sources indicate the deal "is complicated", as it would be Apple's largest acquisition. In addition, the news apparently leaked "too early", with Apple nowhere near ready for news to break despite publications like Re/code and The Financial Times reporting that the deal is close to completion.
A video that was uploaded to YouTube of actor/musician Tyrese alongside Beats co-founder Dr. Dre is another possible reason for the delay, with Dre claiming that he was the first billionaire in hip hop after the deal. The video apparently "freaked Apple out" and had the Cupertino company outraged.
Apparently, the Apple family near imploded with outrage when that video went up on Facebook of an ‘excited’ Dr. Dre with R&B singer/former Coca Cola pin-up Tyrese. In the video they share, in language perhaps unsuitable for a family blog, how Dre will be hip-hop’s first billionaire and other nice things about Compton.
Fourth, Apple allegedly isn't sure whether to give Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre roles as permanent consultants or whether to give them full-time executive roles. Apple is also apparently unsure whether the two of them would fit into the company's corporate climate, despite reports that Iovine and Dre are the "big prizes" of the acquisition.
Finally, another rumored sticking point is Apple's valuation of Beats Music, which has around 200,000 subscribers and has been speculated as one of the main reasons behind the acquisition. Apple is apparently planning to keep Beats Music separate entity from iTunes in order to avoid cannibalization of iTunes music sales.
Apple pundit John Gruber of Daring Fireball offered another scenario, discrediting the Billboard report and speculating that Beats may have leaked to the deal, angering Apple and scuttling the acquisition before it could be completed.
Popular Stories
Apple is working on a number of new products that are set to launch this fall, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that it will be "the widest array" of new devices that Apple has introduced in its history.
In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explains that Apple is working on four new flagship iPhones (iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max), an updated low-end Ma...
Apple has always emphasized the depth of thought that goes into the design of its products. In the foreword to Designed by Apple in California, a photo book released by the company in 2016, Jony Ive explains how Apple strives "to define objects that appear effortless" and "so simple, coherent and inevitable that there could be no rational alternative."
But every once in a while even Apple...
Three months after their launch, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros continue to experience high demand and seemingly short supply, with shipping dates for both models stretching into multiple weeks in several of Apple's key markets.
In the United States, the baseline 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip is estimated to ship in three to four weeks, promising an arrival by at least...
AT&T today announced the launch of upgraded AT&T Fiber plans, which support speeds of up to 5 Gigabits for some customers. There are two separate plans, one "2 GIG" plan and one "5 GIG" plan, available to new and existing AT&T Fiber subscribers.
According to AT&T, the new plans are available to nearly 5.2 million customers across 70 metro areas including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, San...
Apple's AirPods have been credited with saving a woman's life after a potentially fatal fall, People reports.
When a 60-year-old florist in New Jersey tripped and hit her head in her studio, she lost consciousness and awoke heavily bleeding. With nobody around to call for help, she realized she had her AirPods in, and used a "Hey Siri" command to call 911. An operator was able to stay on the ...
Apple's second-generation AirPods Pro could deliver higher fidelity audio than the AirPods Max over-ear headphones, despite being comparatively small in-ear buds, recent reports have suggested.
In a recent note to investors, seen by MacRumors, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that the second-generation AirPods Pro will offer improved audio quality thanks to support...
A number of developers are upset with an increasingly problematic iCloud server issue that is causing some apps that have implemented iCloud support to fail to sync properly.
As outlined on the Developer Forums and on Twitter, there are CloudKit connectivity issues that have been occurring since November. Some users of apps that have iCloud support built in are seeing the following message:...
As we roll into the latter half of January, we're starting to hear more about a potential spring Apple event, which is likely to take place in March or April. There are a number of potential announcements on deck, so an event would be a good opportunity for Apple to get them all out there.
We've also been going back and forth on some iPhone 14 rumors, and we've taken a look at a number of...
Top Rated Comments
Hopefully Apple's official statement/WWDC will give real insight, once the deal is finalized (but hopefully not).
Can't take the hood out of a thug.
I hope Apple nixes the deal and then Dre gets his @$$ handed to him by the BEATS board and management.
Apple should just hire Iovine and just forget the rest of BEATS.