Apple 'Closing In' On Dr. Dre's Beats For $3.2 Billion

http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackoma...2b-beats-buy-would-make-dre-raps-richest-man/




http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonk...ot-with-3-2-billion-purchase-of-beats-by-dre/

The other theory that is being tossed around is the deal is about streaming. Apple wants Beats Music. If so this is also laughable. Beats Music launched in 2012 on the back of the $10M purchase of online music service MOG. Like every streaming music service to date it has struggled to gain a foothold in a Spotify dominated market. Apple may like Beats Music’s focus on curated playlists, but $3.2 billion is a lot to pay for curation.

But what really highlights the lunacy of the Beats deal are the alternatives Apple is spurning. As mentioned, if it is about headphones then Monster is the better and cheaper purchase and audiophile brands like Shure, Sennheiser, Grado, Bowers & Wilkins, AKG and ACS all wipe the floor with Beats and could be purchased for peanuts. Meanwhile if it is about streaming why not aim for the very top since Spotify itself carries a valuation of roughly $4 billion. Apple takes top spot and removes its biggest rival in one fell swoop.

Reports claim the Beats takeover is all but finalised with only loose details to tie up. If Apple comes to its senses in time it should cut all ties and run.
 
dont understand why they would waste $3b on beats. Not worth it for the streaming service or the headphones from the looks of it. Maybe they have something else I'm not seeing.
 
It is odd to go after Beats and not Spotify and its insanely larger user base. But Spotify is apparently bleeding money having to pay 70% of its income to royalties, and is said to have lost $200mil over its lifetime, where as Beats is a relatively clean slate. Beats is also a domestic brand as opposed to Spotify being Swedish which may result in a cleaner hassle free integration with iTunes and its infrastructure and licensing agreements.

Ultimately it is Apple catching up to Google who added a subscription service to Play Music in May last year - being the only provider to offer subscription streaming, an online music store and cloud storage for you own existing library, in a single hub. I started using it recently myself and its brilliant.

Don't rate the headphones - though it does fit with Apple's high priced fashion accessory modus operandi - but I'd assume if Apple wanted one side of the business they have to take the other.
 
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