After weeks of speculation today Wednesday 5/28/14 it was confirmed that Apple will purchase Dr. Dre’s Beats for 3 billion dollars.
The deal will bring over 2.6 billion to the Beats investor and 400 million over time. What comes with this you ask? Apple will be getting stylish hardware and the failing music streaming service beats launch months back. This service will most likely be discontinued as it would complete with Apple’s ITunes store.
We might all think this is an outlandish amount of money for this company but it is only chump change for Apple as the company is worth over 159 billion as last financial year.
According to CNN Money “many think Apple is wasting its time with Beats. The music streaming service has an estimated 500,000 customers, puny compared to Spotify’s 4 million subscribers. Pandora (P), which is valued by investors at $5.2 billion, has more than 250 million active accounts. Apple could buy 30 Pandoras right now.”
But with Apple succeeding for years there is probably more than just the headphones. Apple’s Tim Cook said “extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.”
This deal will see a big win for company founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Dre has already coined himself the first hiphop billionaire but he might still be a little off. Either way, this number will push him closer to that number than any other hiphop mogul.