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Apple's Acquisition of Beats Met with Skepticism, but Jimmy Iovine May Be Key

If Apple are throwing money around maybe they could make the base iPhone/iPod touch model have 64GB and go up from there.

You know, appeal to that hip, young music loving crowd... :rolleyes:
 
3N16MA said:
If there is any truth to this rumor it must be that Apple wants the Beats subscription music service and the headphone hardware comes with the deal.

That being said wouldn't it be telling if Apple had to spend 3.2b to acquire Beats music? They are a much larger company with more resources and over a decade of experience dealing with record labels.

There is no reason why Apple should not be able to create it's own Spotify competitor.
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Apple has a reputation in the industry. 1) a reputation for being loaded with cash and 2) a reputation for screwing labels over in negotiations. There's bad blood with itunes, which for a decade almost single-handedly decimated the music industry. Iovine has tons of contacts, sits on many boards, and has likely already negotiated the deals Apple wants.

We don't know what else is on the table. There might also be a highly desirable headphone patent at play. There were those rumours a while back about sensors of some kind becoming integrated with Apple headphones.
 
So the $100 iPhone 6 price hike will include beats headphones? Hmm :mad:

There has to be something other than brand name behind this purchase. 3 Billion is a lot of money, even for Apple.

I get Apple is about entertainment and a large focus is based on music, afterall SJ built an empire based on it (iPod, iTunes, MacBook, etc). Someone told someone that Beats has a great idea or something and Apple wants it. That's all. In a few months to a year we will find out the actual value of this purchase and I sure hope it drives the stock up another $100.

Nest was a good buy, but is Google going to do anything with it other than collect how hot/cold my residence is?

Why isn't a company doing full home automation yet?

I want my iPad mini to control everything: HVAC, Water sprinkler system, Alarm, front and side door cameras, powering on my home theater/music, controlling all lighting, certain appliances, etc.
 
I think people are forgetting to realize this company trades for 3x sales which is what apple trades at. Not that expensive. Come on guys
 
Fairfax said:
I am having a problem seeing how Apple benefits from this deal. Ive can design better looking headphones. Beats will only wane in popularity as time goes by. I doubt the streaming service has technology that Apple badly needs that they are willing to grossly overpay for. From the article, this basically sums up how I feel, "Separately, we are not aware of any intellectual property within Beats that would drive the acquisition justification beyond the brand.".
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Please guys stop the Friday morning CEOing!

Take a look at Jimmie Iovine's Wikipedia page, he is the Chairman and co-founder or Interscope Records and Chairman of Interscope Geffen A & M which is part of the Universal Music Group which is the largest music corporation in the World . Also scroll down to the complete Iovine discography.
 
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touchipods said:
Wow, Steve Jobs would have never let this happen.
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Keen Apple observers will argue that Steve was ultimately pragmatic and not religious at all about certain things, i.e., he would always do whatever is best for Apple. Make peace with Microsoft, promote USB over the Apple developed Firewire, mock Intel and then years later switch to Intel.

While Apple may be pragmatic in letting go of the not-invented-here syndrome that led to failures like the Twiggy drive in the past, one thing Apple has always done is its own design.

Beats has no technology worth acquiring. They are purely a design (if you want to call it that) and marketing company.

What makes all of this an issue is the price. If it was $300 million I wouldn't care.
 
Because of the brand?? Don't think so... Is apple develope a pair of over ear headphones and put an apple logo will sell like hot cakes.
 
wilhoitm said:
Please guys stop the Friday morning CEOing!

Take a look at Jimmie Iovine's Wikipedia page, he is the Chairman and co-founder or Interscope Records and Chairman of Interscope Geffen A & M which is part of the Universal Music Group which is the largest music corporation in the World . Also scroll down to the complete Iovine discography.
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Yeah I was saying this in the earlier thread. This is all about what Jimmy Lovine can do. His reach is long in the music industry.
 
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I can see a few reasons why it would make sense to acquire Beats. Cool brand. Decent headphones. High-margin business. What I cannot see however, is the price: 3.2B is a LOT for this company. What in the world does Beats have to make it worth that much? I just don't see their streaming business being worth that much, even if they have good licensing deals (which presumably wouldn't just transfer over to a new owner). I really really hope Apple has a damn good reason for their largest acquisition to date. If this is just a me-too move or a way to burn some cash, I'm concerned for the direction the company is going.
 
If this deal goes through, Dr. Dre will be the first billionaire rapper. NWA, baby. :cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
nwa_straight_outta_compton_anniversary-1.jpg
 
wilhoitm said:
Please guys stop the Friday morning CEOing!


Take a look at Jimmie Iovine's Wikipedia page, he is the Chairman and co-founder or Interscope Records and Chairman of Interscope Geffen A & M which is part of the Universal Music Group which is the largest music corporation in the World . Also scroll down to the complete Iovine discography.
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This should be added to the article, because acquiring Beats for it's technology or streaming service obviously would make no sense to anyone. 90% of people understand that Beats is a gimmick and is scoffed at by almost everyone in the music and entertainment industry.
 
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Apple just killing off potential competition. That's the one reason this makes sense.
 
Most likely Beats have a better music streaming algorithm than itune radio.

Also, Apple might be making quite a lot of money from selling beats headphone in their store, might as well own it.
 
wilhoitm said:
Please guys stop the Friday morning CEOing!


Take a look at Jimmie Iovine's Wikipedia page, he is the Chairman and co-founder or Interscope Records and Chairman of Interscope Geffen A & M which is part of the Universal Music Group which is the largest music corporation in the World . Also scroll down to the complete Iovine discography.
Click to expand...

Yes, but $3.2 billion?
None of us are privy to the negotiations and rights to music labels may well be in excess of $3.2 billion. I think the furor over this rumour is the perceived over priced purchase price.

And while Cook and Iovine have history, I'm sure Apple would do due diligence before throwing good money away.
 
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In stead of being all negative on Beats current product line-up, we could also be interested to see what Apple could do with the basis that is there and improve upon it.

In that sense Apple gets a flying start in the headphones business with a gigantic market. Apple's brand should be very valuable in propelling that to the next level.

In addition the Beats Music division will nicely integrate with iTunes.

It makes perfect sense to me, because besides the headphones and music business of Beats there are no useless other divisions that need to be carved out.
 
I don't really understand the interest. Pandora has over 250 million users, Spotify has 4 million. Beats? They have 500,000 (estimated). I know Apple is worried about iTunes sales since the shift in music is going towards streaming, but I don't understand what they hope to accomplish by acquiring beats.

Then again: I'm sitting at desk in an entry-level position, drinking coffee, and watching the news. Tim may have me beat.
 
Sounds like the Beats Headphone would be the perfect device to place Biometric sensors from the ear to the i Device.
 
unobtainium said:
Apple has a reputation in the industry. 1) a reputation for being loaded with cash and 2) a reputation for screwing labels over in negotiations. There's bad blood with itunes, which for a decade almost single-handedly decimated the music industry. Iovine has tons of contacts, sits on many boards, and has likely already negotiated the deals Apple wants.

We don't know what else is on the table. There might also be a highly desirable headphone patent at play. There were those rumours a while back about sensors of some kind becoming integrated with Apple headphones.
Click to expand...

I doubt Beats has any really valuable patents. There is no doubt Iovine is connected and an industry executive himself.

Also Beats purchased MOG which is the backbone to their service. Seems like a much cheaper move Apple could have made.
 
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