Apple has just announced that it is buying Beats Electronics for $3 billion. The headphones and music streaming company was co-founded in 2008 by rapper and producer Dr. Dre and music executive Jimmy Iovine.
The purchase of Beats will bring Iovine and Dr. Dre to work under Eddy Cue, Apple’s executive in charge of Internet services. The two music moguls will join a list of prominent executives that Apple has added to its roster, including Angela Ahrendts, the former chief of Burberry, and Paul Deneve, the former chief of Yves Saint Laurent.
In an interview at Apple’s headquarters, CEO Tim Cook emphasized the talent that Dr. Dre and Mr. Iovine would bring to Apple. He also praised the Beats music service, which has people create playlists for people to listen to. “These guys are really unique,” Mr. Cook said. “It’s like finding the precise grain of sand on the beach. They’re rare and very hard to find.”
Iovine and Dr. Dre will stay on at the firm working within Apple’s electronics and music-streaming divisions. Their titles will simply be “Jimmy and Dre,” Iovine told The Wall Street Journal.
Apple and Beats executives said that the companies would work together to give consumers worldwide more options to listen to music. The Beats brand will remain separate from Apple’s, and Apple will offer both Beats’s streaming music service and premium headphones.
[Sources: Yahoo.com; time.com]
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