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Apple in Talks to Acquire Beats Electronics for $3.2 Billion [Updated]
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I don't understand all this fuss.
Apple is a mainstream company for quite some time, more so after Jobs passed away. I think Beats perfectly aligns with the Apple current. Heck, they even had Lady Gaga at the iTunes festival.
The company some of us grown up with and admired is long gone. Now, it's in the hands of Bieberians, Pharellians and other members of the brainless mainstream herd (who wants to buy some iphone 6 mock-ups, eh?).
Apple is a mainstream company for quite some time, more so after Jobs passed away. I think Beats perfectly aligns with the Apple current. Heck, they even had Lady Gaga at the iTunes festival.
The company some of us grown up with and admired is long gone. Now, it's in the hands of Bieberians, Pharellians and other members of the brainless mainstream herd (who wants to buy some iphone 6 mock-ups, eh?).
I don't get all the Beats hatred. 
I have a pair of the in ear Lady Gaga heartbeats headphones and I like them. /shrug to each his own I suppose.
I have a pair of the in ear Lady Gaga heartbeats headphones and I like them. /shrug to each his own I suppose.
If anything Apple should buy Spotify. It is amazing, by-far the best thing I've ever paid for and it is the future. iTunes Music sales are on the way down, I haven't had a chance to try iTunes Radio yet b/c it's not available in my country but at the end of the day it is a radio, not a streaming service. Spotify is amazing with its social aspect, playlists, offline mode, your music mode etc... I agree, its music catalogue could be better but it's on its way.
Beats on the other hand isn't even so much top quality that it can add something to Apple technologically. It is all about branding and marketing moves with the logo and making the beats headphones "the cool" What will Apple gain out of it?
Spotify is the answer I tell ya.
Beats on the other hand isn't even so much top quality that it can add something to Apple technologically. It is all about branding and marketing moves with the logo and making the beats headphones "the cool" What will Apple gain out of it?
Spotify is the answer I tell ya.
I'm sure Apple could care less about the Beats headphone technology or sound. Design-wise, Beats cans look good (sound like hot garbage), so giving Ive the production capacity that Beats has, along with his design sense and Apple can design a good-looking product.
Also, many of those Beats buyers bought products solely BECAUSE they were Beats-branded. The acquisition now allows Apple to market directly to that incremental market. That could be another million or more iPhones, iPods and iPads sold to these new, Millennial customers.
Add to that the fact that Apple is looking at lossless sound files for iTunes and I'm sure they're looking at hiring (or already have) good audio engineers - which would also help with the design of great-sounding listening devices.
Lastly, the Beats curated Music Streaming service is the MAIN reason for the acquisition. There's now no reason to BUILD the service. They can simply INTEGRATE it. That's a huge win...
Also, many of those Beats buyers bought products solely BECAUSE they were Beats-branded. The acquisition now allows Apple to market directly to that incremental market. That could be another million or more iPhones, iPods and iPads sold to these new, Millennial customers.
Add to that the fact that Apple is looking at lossless sound files for iTunes and I'm sure they're looking at hiring (or already have) good audio engineers - which would also help with the design of great-sounding listening devices.
Lastly, the Beats curated Music Streaming service is the MAIN reason for the acquisition. There's now no reason to BUILD the service. They can simply INTEGRATE it. That's a huge win...
Cook's fall has begun, beats are the most overrated product I've ever OWNED, the *curación* of they radio listing aren't just better than most crowd sourced listing available so why pay 3.2 billion on the biggest vaporware brand in the US?
Have you own beats? Probably not because of your statement. And this has nothing to do with cook, doing just fine.
I get that the Beats headphone brand is established, (though I think it's kinda peaked) and that Apple wants a piece of the pie. But how many $150 headphones do you have to sell to recoup $3 billion? Answer: 20 million. And that's just breaking even on the investment.
Beats made $112 million 2 years ago. If that was gross profit from headphone sales alone at a $150 average, it will take Apple 26 years to recoup 3 billion, unless they can push a lot more headphones out to the world than Beats has been.
Now maybe it's not about the headphones; maybe it's about the streaming. But Beats streaming service is no where near as popular as their headphones.
Either Apple has something up their sleeve that's not obvious, or their math is a little shaky.
I don't get this buy.
Beats made $112 million 2 years ago. If that was gross profit from headphone sales alone at a $150 average, it will take Apple 26 years to recoup 3 billion, unless they can push a lot more headphones out to the world than Beats has been.
Now maybe it's not about the headphones; maybe it's about the streaming. But Beats streaming service is no where near as popular as their headphones.
Either Apple has something up their sleeve that's not obvious, or their math is a little shaky.
I don't get this buy.
about the content deals
for those of you who are saying that Apple is primarily buying them for the content licensing deals -
1) once this deal is comes up for renewal, I fail to see how Apple would get any better pricing than Spotify/Rdio/Google
2) a $500 billion market capitlization and you don't have the talent to build your own streaming service? Even after acquiring lala? seriously?
Jobs would have fired someone, flipped out, etc.
This company has some great people still working for it, and there is some serious cash and inertia that will propel it for a long, long time, but some of the recent stuff I've seen is truly bizarre.
I frankly don't get the infatuation with wearables, and if they can't license content from TV providers for the Apple TV redesign they should build a Slingbox clone with a much better UI/cloud DVR functionality.
for those of you who are saying that Apple is primarily buying them for the content licensing deals -
1) once this deal is comes up for renewal, I fail to see how Apple would get any better pricing than Spotify/Rdio/Google
2) a $500 billion market capitlization and you don't have the talent to build your own streaming service? Even after acquiring lala? seriously?
Jobs would have fired someone, flipped out, etc.
This company has some great people still working for it, and there is some serious cash and inertia that will propel it for a long, long time, but some of the recent stuff I've seen is truly bizarre.
I frankly don't get the infatuation with wearables, and if they can't license content from TV providers for the Apple TV redesign they should build a Slingbox clone with a much better UI/cloud DVR functionality.
not true. I love these headphones - http://www.bose.com/controller?url=.../audio_headphones/in_ear_headphones/index.jsp
The kids these days think Beats are great headphones. No joke. I was thinking of getting new headphones a few months ago and some of them said I should get Beats. I ended up getting the PSB ones though.
Anyway, I think Apple should rename it BEETS. Apple and Beets, very apropos don't you think?
Anyway, I think Apple should rename it BEETS. Apple and Beets, very apropos don't you think?
Streaming music service makes sense, but Apple is paying a hefty premium compared to the $14M that HTC/Beats paid for MOG (which morphed into the Beats music service).
I think the reputation for lifestyle/marketing-first/mediocre quality headphones would hurt Apple's brand.
I think the reputation for lifestyle/marketing-first/mediocre quality headphones would hurt Apple's brand.
I'm sure at least a few people have touched on this but I doubt apple gives a crap about the headphones. Or even the Beats music service as it is now. My thinking is that beats has the music rights established with the music companies for an on demand service. Something apple wants but would have to negotiate on their own. With beats they can have that all in one nice package. So from this standpoint it makes sense to me.
Just that 'b' logo brings me out in hives. It's almost an involuntary response. Repulsion.
Unless there's something under the hood in development, it's extremely hard to take this acquisition as anything other than discharging a shotgun to both feet.
The only person happy would be John Browett, as he'd finally get to cast off that unwelcome tag of "worst decision Apple ever made".
Unless there's something under the hood in development, it's extremely hard to take this acquisition as anything other than discharging a shotgun to both feet.
The only person happy would be John Browett, as he'd finally get to cast off that unwelcome tag of "worst decision Apple ever made".
Beats headphones appeal to the masses -- the casual music listener. They emphasize low frequencies, push the mids toward the low end and produce unrefined highs.
I'm probably not sophisticated enough to call myself an audiophile, but even I can pick up on poor-quality sound. Bose/Beats create the thudthudthud that appeals to most people, but it's lazy -- it's not quality sound.
It completely beats me why Apple would buy Beats at all, pay $1 billion, let alone $3 billion ...
They've got nothing that Apple couldn't design, build, develop, acquire, license, promote etc. for a small fraction of the cost. And they don't need to spend $3 billion for some better music rights.
They've got nothing that Apple couldn't design, build, develop, acquire, license, promote etc. for a small fraction of the cost. And they don't need to spend $3 billion for some better music rights.
I can recommend this article in Wired as a bit more nuanced take on this acquisition..
http://www.wired.com/2014/05/apple-beats-best-idea-since-ipad/
Not sure about the title and some of the statements are a bit hyperbolic, but it is definitely more substantive than many of the posts here that fail to view the situation from beyond their own feelings about the Beats product.
http://www.wired.com/2014/05/apple-beats-best-idea-since-ipad/
Not sure about the title and some of the statements are a bit hyperbolic, but it is definitely more substantive than many of the posts here that fail to view the situation from beyond their own feelings about the Beats product.