“Apple’s biggest deal in its history just got a little cheaper,” Claire Atkinson reports for The New York Post. “The tech titan is expected to announce its acquisition of Beats Electronics this week — at the slightly reduced price of $3 billion, The Post has learned. A report in the Financial Times earlier this month tipping the deal put the price at $3.2 billion.”
“That may have been the case, but negotiations between Apple CEO Tim Cook and the company co-founded by Dr. Dre were not helped by a leaked report that had Beats Music with just 111,000 subscribers to its streaming service in March,” Atkinson reports. “Still, the company is understood to place a high value on the profitable Beats audio business, which retails headphones — costing up to $450 — and speakers around the globe. That business recorded sales of $1.3 billion in 2013. ‘Apple hadn’t even begun its due diligence process when news of the number came out,’ one source close to the talks said Tuesday.”
“While Dre boasted in a much-watched video that the sale would make him hip-hop’s first billionaire — Forbes estimated he could gross up to $800 million on a $3.2 billion sale from his 20 to 25 percent stake — a discount could make it hard to reach a 10-figure net worth. Dre earned $275 million over the past three years, according to Forbes,” Atkinson reports. “If Dre owns 25 percent of Beats and the deal goes down for $3 billion — grossing the hip-hop legend $750 million — he could fall just short, as he would have to first pay the IRS.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Judge Bork” and “Bill” for the heads up.]
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