{"id":21331,"date":"2014-05-29T09:10:22","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T09:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=21331"},"modified":"2014-05-29T09:10:22","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T09:10:22","slug":"apple-agrees-to-buy-headphone-maker-beats-for-3bn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=21331","title":{"rendered":"Apple agrees to buy headphone maker Beats for $3bn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple has confirmed it will buy headphone maker and music-streaming service provider Beats Electronics.<\/p>\n

The deal is worth a total of $3bn (\u00a31.8bn), and is thought to be Apple’s largest acquisition to date.<\/p>\n

As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre will join the technology firm.<\/p>\n

Apple boss Tim Cook said the deal would allow the firm to “continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world”.<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/span>, Apple said it is paying an initial $2.6bn (\u00a31.6bn) for Beats, and approximately $400m (\u00a3239m) “that will vest over time”.<\/p>\n

Beats was founded in 2008 by music producer Jimmy Iovine and hip-hop star Dr Dre and until recently was best known for its headphones.<\/p>\n

It started a subscription-based music streaming service earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Apple has its own iTunes store, the world’s largest music download service, and launched iTunes Radio last year.<\/p>\n

But despite having been an early pioneer of digital music, the Californian firm has been facing increased competition from subscription services such as Spotify, Pandora and Rdio.<\/p>\n

However, Beats’ music service only has about 250,000 paying subscribers,compared with Spotify’s 10 million.<\/p>\n

‘It’s the people’<\/p>\n

The deal with Beats also marks a departure for Apple, which has a reputation for developing new products in-house, rather than buying up smaller firms – a method preferred by rivals Google.<\/p>\n

But in an interview with the New York Times,\u00a0Mr Cook hinted that Beats’ founders may have been part of the attraction.<\/p>\n

“Could Eddy’s team [Eddy Cue, Apple executive in charge of iTunes] have built a subscription service? Of course,” he told the newspaper.<\/p>\n

“You don’t build everything yourself. It’s not one thing that excites us here. It’s the people. It’s the service.”<\/p>\n

“These guys are really unique,” Mr Cook added. “It’s like finding the precise grain of sand on the beach. They’re rare and very hard to find.”<\/p>\n

The Apple boss also said that Dr Dre and Mr Iovine would be coming up with “products you haven’t thought of yet”.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
‘Everyone is puzzled’However some analysts remain baffled by the acquisition.Technology writer Benedict Evans tweeted: “If you think Apple’s lost it, Beats deal is confirmation. If you don’t, it’s\u2026 perplexing. Few really convincing rationales.”<\/p>\n

Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine, who made his name as chairman of the Interscope Geffen A&M record label, welcomed the deal.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology.<\/p>\n

Apple analyst Jim Dalrymple hinted that it may be Mr Iovine’s talent that the technology firm is after.<\/p>\n

Writing on his website The Loop, Mr Dalrymple said: “In my opinion, Jimmy is going to play an important role going forward.<\/p>\n

“Maybe not that you always see, but he’ll be there”.<\/p>\n

As well as headphones, Beats sells earphones and portable speakers, and has even developed partnerships with carmakers and computer manufacturers to include its BeatsAudio software technology in their products.<\/p>\n

The company’s flagship products have also received several celebrity endorsements, with stars including Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj designing their own customised Beats headphones.<\/p>\n

Subject to regulatory approvals, Apple said it expects the deal to close in the fourth financial quarter of this year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple has confirmed it will buy headphone maker and music-streaming service provider Beats Electronics. The deal is worth a total of $3bn (\u00a31.8bn), and is thought to be Apple’s largest acquisition to date. As part of the acquisition, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre will join the technology firm. Apple boss Tim Cook said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":21345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[18,445,1081],"class_list":["post-21331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-akwasi-osei","tag-rabies","tag-terror-attacks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}