“Monster founder and CEO Neol Lee has spoken out on Apple’s proposed $3.2 billion takeover of former audio partner Beats, and he sounds a little bitter,” Luke Johnson reports for TrustedReviews. “Although attempting to put a brave face on the proposed acquisition, Lee, whose company Monster helped bring the Beats brand to market, has failed to mask his disappointment in no longer being affiliated with the popular headphone and speaker maker.”
“‘We are very excited for our friends at Beats to have achieved such an incredible valuation for the company Monster started,’ Lee said in a statement sent to TrustedReviews,” Johnson reports. “With the deal said to have heavily favoured the music makers, leaving Monster just distribution rights. When Dre and Iovine sold a 51 per cent share of the Beats brand to HTC for $300 million last year, Lee was pushed out. ‘For the first 5 years, until 2013, Monster was Beats, having developed, engineered, and distributed all of the Beats products,’ Lee has said. ‘We wish we could have partnered with companies like Apple and enjoyed some of the fruits of our labour, but our license with Beats ended with the purchase of Beats by HTC.'”
Johnson reports, “He added: ‘Monster, by contract, had to turn over all of the IP and manufacturing in 2013. However, the reported Apple acquisition reflects on the potential valuation of Monster – as we have developed many new and advanced products that are appearing on the market now.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
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