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Apple Announces $3 Billion Beats Acquisition, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre Joining the Company

Arndroid said:
It is not often I toss john gruber into the irrational group but he has been there along with many others for this whole journey.

The oddest question being asked over and over is we will have to wait and see if and how it makes sense. It has always made sense. Financially, philosophically. Every piece of the package makes sense. The Iovine angle has been covered. Beats is a very profitable company which makes the price a no brainer. Dr. Dre is one of the most successful producers in the history of music. Almost every product apple sells uses headphones. Apple wants to be in the streaming music business and are jazzed to expand on the curated style that beats offers. Beats headphones dominate the high end market for their product category.

The reality is there is not a part of the deal that does not make sense. I am massively hesitant to even bring race up but when people viscerally react so negatively to a deal that makes sense from every angle and is a no brainer yet people continue to say they don't get it or will have to wait and see... Well that makes me think something much more unsavory is going on in people's thought processes and that is disappointing. It is not like people who are upset about it and against have shown why financially it is a bad deal. They have not demonstrated why having access to Iovine and Dre would be bad. They have not shown what is bad about a company who has sold hundreds of millions of devices that use headphones, acquiring the dominant high end headphone manufacturer. They have not demonstrated why having a curated streaming service is bad.

In the totality of the deal none of those against it have laid out even a quasi legitimate argument against any of those pieces. The best that seems to come up is it is not Apple. At this point that is simply code people are using to say Beats is too black or too Urban. And no arguing that you don't like the quality of the headphones when they absolutely own almost the entire high end headphone market is NOT a legitimate reason to not understand why it is a good deal. And there is nothing more fundamentally Apple than wanting to dominate the high end of a market segment with large margins.

People are either going to need to start coming up with actual reasoned responses based on all the pieces available or else you are just coming across as someone who has a deeper seeded issue that has nothing to do with good business. Quite a few journalists fall into this same camp. Saying apple should have bought spotify with it's not real four billion dollar valuation and red ink is just being a dumb racist.

If you can't understand why this deal makes sense I feel bad for you. It is pretty obvious. If this deal makes you sick to your stomach, I feel bad for your soul.
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I think it would be easier to swallow if it wasnt for the hip hop thug lifestyle. You cant blame people for thinking hip hop/rap is a culture of violence when 95% of it is.
 
priyamsingh said:
Idk just ask yourself what type of person beats headphones are marketed to and ask yourself if that fits with Apple's classy brand. Do a lot of highly educated people wear beats headphones?
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...

This comment is really gross. People of all ages, types and demographics use the iPhone. I love Apple but there's no need to put it on a pedestal.
 
priyamsingh said:
Selling a few headphones at your store is very different than spending $3 billion buying out the company all together. I hope you understand the difference.
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A few? They're some of the best selling and highest ratee headphones on the Apple/store.com.

You suggested that this purchase was sullying Apple's reputation for high standards. I'm suggesting that by selling the headphones, Apple had already granted Beats' a tacit endorsement. This move does not represent a shift in Apple's values, since if you're right, Apple was willingly selling low quality products to their consumers already. The fact that they now own the company doesn't make them any more complicit than they already were, it just gives them all of the profits rather than a portion of them. Regardless, as most people have figured out (and as Cook essentially already announced) this deal was about the streaming service. The highly profitable headphones simple eliminate the risk of such a major transaction.

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MacVista said:
A little inertia, that's all.
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Perhaps. Time will tell. As things stand, comparing Cook to Sculley is extremely premature. We should at least wait for him to stop making so much money before we accuse him of destroying Apple.
 
vampyr said:
Maybe it's just me??

But I find it REALLY IRONIC that Dre is hanging out with a bunch of rich, old white dudes!! :D
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I do find it funny. From Compton to Cupertino.

But Dre is surrounded by rich, Jewish lawyers too. It isn't uncommon to see hip hop artists mingle with rich white folks. Snoop Dogg is really good friends with Willie Nelson since the Half Baked days and even made a song together. Big Boi from OutKast is actually good friends with Jane Fonda! Dr. Dre actually listens to Nirvana and "Stay Away" is one of his fav songs ever.

From Ruthless Records to Deathrow Records to Aftermath to Beats and now to Apple! What a rise! Ain't nuthin but a G thang, baby!
 
flatfoot99 said:
I think it would be easier to swallow if it wasnt for the hip hop thug lifestyle. You cant blame people for thinking hip hop/rap is a culture of violence when 95% of it is.
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What hip hop thug lifestyle? Beats headphones can play any music; the streaming service plays all types of music and Dr. Dre is essentially returning to music production elsewhere. I doubt very seriously that in the future Apple will force their customers to join a gang.
 
Zerilos said:
A few? They're some of the best selling and highest ratee headphones on the Apple/store.com.

You suggested that this purchase was sullying Apple's reputation for high standards. I'm suggesting that by selling the headphones, Apple had already granted Beats' a tacit endorsement. This move does not represent a shift in Apple's values, since if you're right, Apple was willingly selling low quality products to their consumers already. The fact that they now own the company doesn't make them any more complicit than they already were, it just gives them all of the profits rather than a portion of them. Regardless, as most people have figured out (and as Cook essentially already announced) this deal was about the streaming service. The highly profitable headphones simple eliminate the risk of such a major transaction.

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Perhaps. Time will tell. As things stand, comparing Cook to Sculley is extremely premature. We should at least wait for him to stop making so much money before we accuse him of destroying Apple.
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I'm not too concerned about the actual quality of the headphones. I was talking about the brand beats has created and that brand's image not matching Apple's image. So yes basically this deal is 100x more of a win for beats than it was for Apple.
 
I think Eddy needs a bigger shirt. :D

DSC_0073.jpg


DSC_0078.jpg
 
Zerilos said:
What hip hop thug lifestyle? Beats headphones can play any music; the streaming service plays all types of music and Dr. Dre is essentially returning to music production elsewhere. I doubt very seriously that in the future Apple will force their customers to join a gang.
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I was referring to Dre.
 
priyamsingh said:
Idk just ask yourself what type of person beats headphones are marketed to and ask yourself if that fits with Apple's classy brand. Do a lot of highly educated people wear beats headphones?
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Donald Sterling, is that you?

To answer your questions - Teenagers!

They did a survey on teens and the most popular brand in their segment is Apple and Beats! Teens and the youth is a driving force to technology and economy. Investing for the young to have a more fruitful future! Makes alot $ense in longer run.
 
priyamsingh said:
Idk just ask yourself what type of person beats headphones are marketed to and ask yourself if that fits with Apple's classy brand. Do a lot of highly educated people wear beats headphones?
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I know of some highly un-educated people that use apple products. What's your point? You sound like you are from the '50's. "Keep those low life's away from the stuff I use!"
 
imageWIS said:
In Germany, companies hire people with actual doctorates, in the USA they hire people who barely got past high school.
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Steve Jobs doesn't have a doctorate and his tech company makes more than any German tech company. So maybe they should start hiring high school grads in your country ehh?
 
Savor said:
Donald Sterling, is that you?

To answer your questions - Teenagers!

They did a survey on teens and the most popular brand in their segment is Apple and Beats! Teens and the youth is a driving force to technology and economy. Investing for the young to have a more fruitful future! Makes alot $ense in longer run.
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Yeah I'm not sure why you decided to bring race into it and compare me to Sterling. Extremely unfair attack on me.

I agree with you teenagers (of any race) is the kind of person that would buy beats headphones. Not exactly the sophisticated image that is at Apple's level.
 
Btw, for all those throwing around race...here's a quote from Jimmy Iovine at the Code conference tonight:

8:20:19 PM PDT
"We wanted to move to a better neighborhood," Iovine says, after saying that the music industry and audio services have been "ghettos."
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Rogifan said:
Btw, for all those throwing around race...here's a quote from Jimmy Iovine at the Code conference tonight:
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He was speaking metaphorically rather than literally. He wasn't actually suggested that he wanted to get away from minority neighborhoods.
 
Eddy Cue is not impressive tonight. His basic justification for this deal is that Jimmy Iovine has an "ear for music" and music curation is important.
 
Savor said:
I do find it funny. From Compton to Cupertino.

But Dre is surrounded by rich, Jewish lawyers too. It isn't uncommon to see hip hop artists mingle with rich white folks. Snoop Dogg is really good friends with Willie Nelson since the Half Baked days and even made a song together. Big Boi from OutKast is actually good friends with Jane Fonda! Dr. Dre actually listens to Nirvana and "Stay Away" is one of his fav songs ever.

From Ruthless Records to Deathrow Records to Aftermath to Beats and now to Apple! What a rise! Ain't nuthin but a G thang, baby!
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indeed, Dre is a shining example IMO :apple:
 
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