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Apple Reportedly Buying Beats Electronics For $3.2 Billion
An anonymous reader writes "Multiple publications report that Apple is undertaking its biggest acquisition ever, buying Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. The deal would give Apple control over the popular 'Beats by Dre' headphones as well as a new music streaming service. Analysts suggest the headphones will open up a new series of product lines for Apple, while the streaming service will jumpstart its efforts to compete with Pandora and Spotify, as iTunes' growth slows. 'If Apple wanted to, it could certainly have built a streaming subscription service itself; the company had been floating the notion of one with label executives in recent months. But it's possible that Apple's most recent attempts to extend its music business beyond the iTunes store helped convince Cook that he was better off getting outside help.' The deal hasn't been completed yet, but a candid video of Dr. Dre was posted to Facebook in which he appeared to confirm it."
Make a good match for each other.
For overpriced technically inferior headphones to listen to compressed to hell music.
Wake me when apple gets a quality pair of headphones and at least cd quality loss-less without DRM.
No sir I dont like it.
Oh no, not Apple! They overcharge for all of their products. I bet now we'll have to pay $50 for a pair of stylish earbuds! Wait... carry on.
Artificially-inflated bass crap. Do yourself a favor a get yourself a pair of real studio reference headphones like the venerable Sony MDR-7509s (for a lot less money too) if you want to hear what your music really sounds like. There's a reason that studios around the globe use these and not fuckin' Beats. Beats are a fashion accessory, not a critical listening device.
I can't recall hearing anything as bad as the Beats. They wouldn't even sound bad if they had cost half of what they do. Pick up any low-budget $20 AKGs and you will have many times better sound.
Dre's gonna be the first hip-hop billionaire.
Best Slashdot Co
2 fashion companies disguised as electronics companies.
Now not only will Apple earbuds tangle like a squid attempting to hang christmas lights while being chased through a yarn factory by kittens, they'll sound like shit, too.
"Thing Thugs Will Beat You For" for $200 Alex.
---
1> Apple products are the what the thugs want around here, most only threaten or beat you, some use hand guns.
2> Those beats headphones got popular and are now being targeted by thugs.
3> Apple see's another market for repeat (re-beat?) customers.
4> Profit!
No brain, no pain.
Maybe Apple is just looking to add a little color to their lineup. Beats, official headphone of sports millionaires everywhere.
Wonder how they will decide to merge their marketing departments? After all, that is the heart of both companies.
Ghetto headphones used by thugs and "gangsta" wannabes now owned by maker of tech gear for the 1% hipsters. BSD and old THinkPads never looked so good.
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
-H.L. Mencken (paraphrased)
"Ain't nothin' but a G thang, baaaaabay!
Apple loc'ed out G, so we craaaaazay!
Apple be the label that pay me!"
Someone pulling a reverse pump and dump by planting a crazy story...
Yes, Dre. You will FINALLY afford to provide your family with groceries.
Ho please!
"Ok, sign here...and here...and...here. Well, Congratulations! You bought yourself a 3 billion dollar company!"
"Thanks! Ok, where's the girl?"
"Pardon me?"
"The girl. That Emilly Ratsomehing"
"Sir, she is a supermodel and did not get sold as part of the deal."
"WHERE'S MY ACCOUNTANT?!?!?"
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Because thats all Beats has ever been. The problem apple faces is that Dr. Dre is fast becoming Dr. Grey. in his last 5-10 years hes only made small guest vocal appearances on the behalf of his label members. his most famous songs, 'nuthin but a g thang' for example came out 20 years ago. so while the turtlenecks running apple might remember him from their kegger days in college it has yet to be seen if anyone born after 2000 will even care. Beats in cellular technology and tablets is powered, from what i can guess, by Cowon (a taiwanese manufacturer of high regard for their sound chips and DSP at a very competitive price.) The headphone line originally came from Monster Cable, but now is cranked off the same assembly in mainland china that produces most every other headphone in existence.
FWIW, If i were apple, i would have marketed a competing brand based on someone like Deadmau5 or Skrillex or Knife Party or any other band actual kids listen to. As an added benefit, these artists already heavily plug and leverage Apple as a brand.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I don't understand this deal yet, but my problem isn't with Beats headphones being a "rip off". That's not the issue for me. The larger issue for me is, I don't see why Apple couldn't have simply produced their own rip-off headphones if they wanted to, or their own music streaming service. They have the technical ability. They have the design and marketing talent. So what are they getting out of the deal?
I would imagine that this is either a waste of money, or there's some other calculation. Like maybe record labels have been trying to bend Apple over a barrel when they ask for streaming rights, and in this deal, Apple acquires the streaming rights that Beats had, thereby side-stepping the deal. Or maybe Apple looked at the organization and thought it was a good team as a whole, and rather than trying to steal the employees away one-by-one, they thought it was better to purchase them outright. There's always the explanation that they were buying the customer base, but I'm not sure that'll hold once they rebrand and integrate-- and I would be surprised if they didn't rebrand and integrate it into their existing products/services.
I don't know. Does anyone have info here that would shed light on the real motivation? Or has Apple just started buying random businesses because they're profitable, without a larger strategic plan?
Idiocracy is real, there's a page documenting this on Wikipedia.
Exactly like what happened when we got cable news channels, with 24-hour coverage allowing us to delve more deeply into the important issues of the day.
fsck, my sarcasm meter just broke.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Apple could care less how good or bad these headphones are.
Beats captured the market with enormously good branding. Now that they've got the stranglehold, Apple is listening (no pun intended).
Innovative marketing move. Expect a set of Apple-branded cans with builtin iPod/WiFi and voice control. Not rocket science.
Organization? You must be joking..
Where is your God now, Samsung?
Apple doesn't seem to be the type of company to make all the peripherals when they can just license Made for iPod/iPhone and rake in money that way. Buying Beats products would be so far outside their typical business, it would seem weird.
Now if Apple is just going to license technology from Beats (more likely, but still seems a bit weird), Apple has been one company that never puts others logos/stickers on their products, whereas Beats has been all about plastering their logo on anything they touch.
The whole scenario smells of a stock price inflation for Beats. My money is on nothing happening with this.
They get a trendy well established brand name. They get the Dr. Dre. They get the perceived quality (200$ headphones? rly?). They get to reinforce their dominance as a music production company (ipods, iphones).
Is it worth 3+ BILLION? Hell no! However A) Beats is pretty uniquely placed right now. They are at their peak and no one is like them. B) News! Tech company overpays for another company! OMG! When you have a bazillion dollars, you likely have to prove as a CEO you are doing something with it other than polishing your boat with it.
If Apple does buy them, they should replace the plastic bands on the other models with metal with leather cushion like what you find on the Executive. For the price they share, they should not break during normal use within a year.
I had a pair of Dr. Dre Wireless break on me after a 4 months of normal use after returning from a business trip to DC. The headband snapped on me.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
There was a time when I got more Beats By Dre comment spam on my blog than any other single spam subject...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Thunderdome. All weapons crafted from 100% bullshit.
With Apple buying Beets, they're set to dominate the produce market!
buying beats is also a bit of a threat/warning to the studios.
they are making money from the on demand model, but they aren't allowing apple to play in the space because they want to break itune's monopoly.
by buying beats, apple is saying, look, now we own beats. you want to keep fucking with us, we'll own spotify and pandora too. fuck you.
now sit down with us and let's make this on demand music thing work and stop trying to erode itunes dominance.
that's how i see it.
plus they get an solid brand with a solid music streaming service, a serious cool factor to have dre on board, and a deeper connection to the music industry.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Apple needs to be a leader again, start innovating just like they did with the first smartphone, ipod and tablet. Don't fall back on buying tech. Regain your followers!
The real reason so many of you are talking so negatively about Beats is the same as the one why so many people hate Obama -- Americans still can't stand the idea of a black man being the father of something successful.
Dr. Dre fathered the best headphone maker on the planet and did so in only about 5 years. The better Beats is, the more you will hate it, because of what it represents.
Anyone care to enlighten us on which international subs will be forking over the money, and how the transaction will be structured to avoid paying any taxes?
A few years ago, our local Best Buy bought into the whole Beats by Dr. Dre fad and installed a DJ booth in the store. There was a lot of promotion posters and banners indicating that there would be a "live" DJ at the premiere. When I stopped in, there was one guy in the booth wearing the headphones and diddling about with a turntable, and NOBODY else in the area. All you could hear was the over-loud televisions nearby.
I kinda wanted to walk up to the guy and say "What's the matter mr. DJ? Doesn't anyone want to hear your music?"... but the poor fellow looked too pathetic. I don't think he could have handled that kind of rejection.
Given how Apple rapes its customers on pricing. Stands to reason they would buy a audio/video accessory company that has also been raping its customers for years. Except the difference is Apple products are at least pretty good on quality. Beats headphones have been proven to be not so great on sound and fall apart.
Yea, Monster Cable is another over priced product line. Plenty of independent testing proves no significant improvement in much of what Monster claims on its cables. Especially digital, because digital is not subject to shielding issues as analog was. I can even accept audio cables from Monster being a bit better in long runs. But patch cables, I doubt even a audiophile would be hard pressed to tell a improvement.
If I had to buy a over priced headphone I would buy a Bose pair over Beats. At least Bose actually tries to make a good sounding headphone.
I am not sure where Apple is going with this purchase? But given the mark ups on accessories I suspect Apple is looking for a bigger bank account.
K. S. Kyosuke: You've been called out (for tossing names) & you ran "forrest" from a fair challenge http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
They're just branching out into vegetables now.
tone it down, your clickin sounds like flipper.
Or is it your speaker?
He's a field ***** who's worked his way into the house.
I hadn't been able to remember why I had a hostile attitude to Dre until I ran across an old article about the Napster trial from way back when... Guess who the other big sellout besides Metallica was? Dr. Dre.
Given his background and the fact that I imagine he and his homies had their collection's of mix tapes and pirated music, that's a pretty low place to go. Explains how he got the connections to make himself into a billionaire though. He'll sell out to anyone to get ahead.
There's a moral in that story for any youngins who still want to idolize him: If you ain't willin to roll over, don't expect to be fed like somebody's dog :)
Like selling his street cred out to the RIAA back during the Napster days. Everybody forgets the next biggest shill behind Metallica was Dre. Producer gotta earn his produce after all!
He has a PhD in electrical engineering.
If I can Quote John Gruber's comment:
" Here’s How Odd This ‘Apple Buys Beats’ Rumor Is
So odd that it was an April Fool’s joke just five weeks ago in The Lefsetz Letter, the most popular music industry newsletter. "
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2014/04/01/apple-buys-beats/
So where does that leave us? Is this another case of an "Onion article" making it into the mainstream press?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GePUXH6X7z0
This explains why all the 22 year old idiots walking around SOMA are now wearing giant headphones. Suddenly they're cool and for the cool people so now Apple needs to buy them. Twenty-two year old kids don't really know these huge earphones are the equivalent of Monster. All hot air, but let them spend their money as long as they keep buying our real estate and renting hovels at enormous prices.
I'd rather (and did) spend money on genuinely good stuff like MrSpeakers Mad Dogs and Sennheiser Momentums (over ears). For $50, a timeless favorite is still the Koss KSC-75 and PortaPro.
Yeah, good luck with that Apple! Suckers!!!