It’s official. Apple announced today that it has agreed to purchase Beats for £1.8 billion (US$3 billion) in a deal that is expected to close later this year.
Since the first rumours, many have wondered why Apple would purchase a company that is best known for manufacturing high-priced headphones. Now we know the answer.
Although Apple has not explicitly stated its reasoning, the structure of its press release shows that Beats Music – the fledgling music streaming service that launched this past January – is at the centre of the deal.
Throughout the press release, the music streaming service is mentioned ahead of Beats Electronics, the headphone portion of the [...]
When seemingly credible rumours surfaced two days ago that Apple was in the final stages of a £1.9 billion (US$3.2 billion) acquisition of headphone maker Beats by Dre, the world scratched its head. Now that a little time has passed, the deal is starting to make sense – sort of.
Since its launch in 2008, Beats has taken the world by storm. The premium headphone maker controls 59 percent of the high-end market and generated £590 million (US$1 billion) in revenue this past year. It also has a small music streaming service with approximately 200,000 subscribers.
The headphones are [...]
