After the rumour hits the street earlier month and half-confirmed by a drunk Dr. Dre soon after, Apple has finally announced it: the Cupertino company is indeed buying the renowned audio company, Beats. As reported before, the acquisition will include both Beats Electronics and its music subscription service, Beats Music.
Additionally, both of Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will be joining Apple as part of the deal. Instead of USD 3.2 billion, the final cost to Apple is apparently slightly lower at USD 3 billion (RM 9.7 billion) with USD 2.6 billion out of that amount will be paid as the purchase price while the remaining USD 400 million will paid over a certain duration that was not specified in the official announcement.
Sharing a laugh with Jimmy, Dre, and @cue. Excited to welcome the #Beats team to #Apple. It's all about the music. pic.twitter.com/ZwyWgHFwhO
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 28, 2014
Pending approvals from authorities, the acquisition is expected to be completed by Q4 of Apple’s fiscal year. Now that the deal is finally official, here comes the next set of questions: what will Apple do with both Beats Music and Beats Electronics? Will Beats exists by itself or rebranded as Apple? What is Jimmy and Dre’s role at Apple?
Not to forget, when will we see the first post-Apple products from Beats? With WWDC only a week away, let’s see if Apple and Beats will answer these questions and more over there.
[Source: Apple, Beats Music]
