Apple may unveil Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre executive appointments at WWDC

“Apple could unveil Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre as its latest recruits at its Worldwide Developers’ Conference in June, according to people familiar with the Beats Electronics acquisition talks,” Yinka Adegoke reports for Billboard.

“Iovine and Dre, co-founders of Beats, are in talks to sell the company for $3.2 billion to the iPhone and iPad maker in a deal which is expected to be announced later this week,” Adegoke reports. “Both are expected to join Apple in yet-to-be confirmed executive roles. One person said Iovine would likely oversee all of Apple’s music strategy and handle relationships with labels and publishers.”

“This year’s WWDC will take place June 2-6 in San Francisco,” Adegoke reports. “If Dre were to be presented at the WWDC ,it would not be the first time. He has previously appeared at an Apple event; about a decade ago, he appeared by video link at an Apple event to congratulate Steve Jobs on the launch of the iPod and the iTunes store. For his part, Iovine had a long relationship with Jobs, according to several sources. He had tried unsuccessfully to convince Jobs to launch a music subscription service. The Apple/Beats deal is expected to take about two months to close, and the company might wait till the closing to unveil the executives as Apple employees.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s pursuit of Beats seen presaging more takeovers – May 12, 2014
Former eMusic CEO explains why Apple wants to buy Beats – May 12, 2014
Apple’s deep ties with Jimmy Iovine key driver of Beats deal – May 12, 2014
Removal of Dr. Dre video about Apple-Beats deal likely means acquisition is real and imminent – May 10, 2014
Game changer: Apple buying Beats could radically transform the digital music business – May 9, 2014
If Beats deal happens, Apple is acquiring a fad, not quality, and that is troubling – May 9, 2014
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The reason for Apple’s $3.2 billion interest in Beats? Spotify – May 9, 2014
Apple buying Beats Electronics: Its best idea since the iPad? – May 9, 2014
Why would Apple want to blow $3.2 billion on Beats Electronics? – May 8, 2014
Apple in talks to buy Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion – May 8, 2014

13 Comments

  1. lol! So Tim and the executive team will be wearing lots of bling bling and yo! We got da best bootylicious MacBook Pro yo MotherF been lookin fo’ Yo! 😉

  2. If i were reading that these two clowns were being courted by Microsoft and it’s clueless “leadership”, I would say that is about their speed.

    When I read Apple is considering this, I wonder if the day is April 1st.

  3. I’d rather they introduce Angela Ahrendts than the Beats founders. There’s nothing unique about their Beats subscription service or beats audio earphones. Why didn’t they buy Spotify or Pandora if they wanted that business.

  4. Huh, so the iBand will be a wallet (like the Disney Magic Band, which seems to be a huge beta test) and will be able to stream all of the world’s music from iCloud or wherever, doesn’t matter. Will there be new Apple Beats headphones using bluetooth to connect iBand you your iHead, possibly an Apple Beats VR goggle thing too? Unless this is just about making better EarPods.

  5. I’ll be extremely disappointed it this ends up being true, in particular with regard to bringing Dr. Dre into the executive team. He is an outspoken misogynist and homophobe, which is not exactly a stellar cultural fit for the Apple I’d like to support with my product/service purchases, or my stock investments.

  6. New Music Label ? . . . I’ve been trying to figure out the value of Iovine and Dr. Dre, and I thought “You could start a new music label with these guys”. You already have the distribution set up (iTunes). Conceivably you could sign artists directly to Apple . . . i.e. You wouldn’t need to buy music rights from these other companies (Sony, etc), because you could have your own stable of musicians . . . Maybe Iovine said to Apple, “If you want me, then you have to buy my company” . . . Note: I’m not saying this is the answer to the mystery, but I have yet to see any articles that pursue this possibility (and it’s pros and cons).

  7. “J” may be on to something. Apple Inc & Apple Corps settled their differences in court with Apple paying for all rights to Apple EVEN with music which The Beatles were not happy about. Financial settlement, huge promo iTunes of Beatles & Fab Four solo work, movies etc. iTunes concerts, AppleTV concerts & iTunes Radio… iTunes Beats Studio? did Apple buy Abbey Road Studio?

    First The Beatles. Now Beats. The Beat goes on…

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