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Apple in Talks to Acquire Beats Electronics for $3.2 Billion [Updated]

SirLance99 said:
Nobody uses that service
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Seems small enough to be in line with other typical Apple purchases, not be splashy ones like Beats and I think they might gain more momentum. Also I think Apple could make good use of it. And look at that... https://twitter.com/search?q=8tracks pandora

Anyway, Pandora would seem to be a better purchase, going by this chart.

Screen-Shot-2014-05-08-at-11.35.26-am.png
 
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iMacian said:
I also prefer Sennheiser. The thing is, I need new in ears every 6-12 months. They just can't figure out how to make a sturdy 3.5mm connector. They change their design all the time. No success so far.
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Yes! I wound up buying Shure SE215s because I could not handle buying another $120 pair of headphones that absolute disintegrate with mild use in a few months.

That said, while I hate Beats headphones, they are well designed and have great build quality. Plus, the streaming music service is an obvious acquisition for Apple.

It's extremely amusing to me how ridiculous the comments on this article are. You don't even know what Apple plans to do with the headphone business.
 
techwhiz said:
But there are other companies with much better headphones.
Fannie Wang makes a better headphone.
Bose makes a better headphone
Bang & Olufsen makes a better headphone

The only place where Beats makes a good sounding headphone is the Executive series.

The IP on headphones isn't worth 3.2 billion.
Sorry, it just isn't.
It's speaker technology is a tiny package and for active noise cancellation it's DSP. You can get what Beats has in IP for a lot less.

It would be a mistake for Apple to buy them.
HTC just unwound themselves from Beats last year.

http://www.mobileburn.com/22056/news/htc-and-beats-audio-finalize-their-divorce
http://pocketnow.com/2013/09/27/htc-and-beats-divorce

Beats had a valuation of $1.2 Billion in Sept. 2013 when they bought the 25% of themselves back from HTC for $265 million.

No way is Beats worth 3 times that in eight months.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.........
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Dont want to insult you, but what background do you have to make such a statement that 3.2 billion is too much?
Every other company you mentioned are worth FAR more than BEATS, simply because of their name and quality. You also fail to understand that not every company wants to be sold, and some are private, not public.
 
What the hell Apple?
Just as I fall in love with the whole Apple ecosystem you pull this?
Just why? I don't get it? Beats are not high quality headphones, they are OK sounding, bassy, hugely overpriced and awful looking. :eek:

If you are going to buy an audio company (and I hardly think of that tacky brand as an audio company) then at least do it properly. Bowers & Wilkins are the best of the best, or even Bang & Olufsen (they aren't doing too great financially I believe so would potentially be even cheaper)? But Beats? That has to be a bad joke... and for $3,200,000,000!!!!! I would have said a tenth of that is a generous figure.

No offence to audiophiles (I am a bit of one myself) but audio isn't rocket science, especially for what Apple needs, and it certainly isn't worth $3.2bn for a garish crappy brand like Beats. I even think Apple products sound pretty dam good as they are to be perfectly honest.

How is this an investment? Is this supposed to attract a younger audience to Apple? Because I'm 22 and wouldn't be caught dead wearing that crap on my ears... The only people I know who do are hipsters and idiots with low self esteem and no class or knowledge of good headphones.

I use EarPods when I'm at the gym or at uni, I use Sennheiser PC 363D's for gaming and a Tannoy 5.1 system + Sony AVR... At no point ever do Beats come into the equation for me and I would avoid having their labelling on any Apple product I owned.
 
CL4W said:
Dont want to insult you, but what background do you have to make such a statement that 3.2 billion is too much?
Every other company you mentioned are worth FAR more than BEATS, simply because of their name and quality. You also fail to understand that not every company wants to be sold, and some are private, not public.
Click to expand...

Beats are nothing but a cash cow and I have no doubt the people in charge would sell in a second if they got a big pay off. $3.2bn is too much by far, anyone with basic common sense can work that out.
 
Apple needs to move beyond "hardware first"

Apple should spend $ on mobile financial/banking rather than Beats. Square is one decent target. Or even DFS.

If it wants to beat Spotify, why not buy Spotify rather than also ran Beats?
 
Say what you want... But if they give me a pair of beats earbuds packaged with the iPhone 6 VS the EarPods we currently get....I support this move.
 
aliensporebomb said:
I like Apple products but any time I put a pair of Beats headphones on in a store I picture Ronald McDonald, bouncing and cavorting over a large, hard landscape of irregularly shaped orange plastic objects.

I prefer Sennheiser myself.

Really.
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iMacian said:
I also prefer Sennheiser. The thing is, I need new in ears every 6-12 months. They just can't figure out how to make a sturdy 3.5mm connector. They change their design all the time. No success so far.
Click to expand...

Sennheiser makes some great headphones. I prefer these ones by PSB though. The sound quality is amazing.

http://www.whathifi.com/review/m4u2

Chocomonsters said:
Apple should spend $ on mobile financial/banking rather than Beats. Square is one decent target. Or even DFS.

If it wants to beat Spotify, why not buy Spotify rather than also ran Beats?
Click to expand...

Maybe it tried to but spotify didn't want to sell.
 
I can think of better things Apple could spend $3.2bn on.

How about fixing the GPU issues on the 2011 MacBook Pros and initiating a replacement program?

Yeah. I like that idea much better.
 
iolinux333 said:
This. Perhaps the Board of Directors of Apple could take a clue and sack the bean counter - or at least put him back to counting beans. That guy has zero vision.
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He is surrounded by visionaries hand picked by Steve jobs. I'm not worries that Tim doesn't have the vision steve had. Apple has a very strong leadership. If anything they are running more like Steve jobs did than not.
 
What for??
-Engineering/design talent? I'm sure Apple has and/or could find better elsewhere. Much better, in fact. Shocking as it may be, Beats isn't particularly amazing in the build/sound quality for the price department.
-Patents/IP? What Beats IP can possibly be worth this much?
-Brand name? Ok, I can see that, but Apple will likely end up rebranding it anyway.
-Streaming/changing relationship with the studios? That makes the most sense, seeing as iTunes sales continue to dwindle and even slide. Even so, is that worth in excess of $3B? IDK.

Anyhow, I s'pose that'd remain a head scratcher for quite some time.
 
I think a lot here are missing the point if they were to acquire them...

Apple would obviously take complete control and push their own influence over any company they takeover, so whatever headphone maker they took over, you wouldn't be able to "recognise" the product they'd make out of it.

They don't take over a company just so they can include their products or alter them slightly or whatever... they try to use the new resources to "revolutionise".

(writing this at 2am, my england might not make any sense :D)
 
Fasten your seat belts, Apple is continuing it's descent to where it was when Jobs was fired.
 
Let me guess... another made-up-on-the-cr@pper posting from Secret to start this rumor?

Various major media outlets "confirming" it still doesn't make it a good idea.
 
BAD Choice Apple

Stupid -stupid -stupid
BAD BAD - The Company is not worth a dollar . Their is nothing their . Their headphones are the worst ever.
 
Beats probably have a high profit margin, just like Apple. Beats sell on name alone, just like Apple. Neither brand has to be the best at what they do, they have an enormous following and everything they make sells like crazy. Say headphones, most people will think Beats. Say cell phone, most will say iPhone. A perfect business match. :)
 
Do people have a LEGIT reason why Cook should be fired? I mean has anything seriously been a disaster since he's been in office? Like....did Revenue drop by 50%?
 
My initial reaction to this is that it is completely stupid but I am going to reserve judgement until I figure out if there is any real truth to the matter and really think through what it means for apple.
 
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