“Apple is cutting around 200 jobs at Beats Electronics as it prepares to close on its $3 billion purchase of the audio equipment and music-streaming company, The Post has learned,” Claire Atkinson reports for The New York Post. “The cuts, ahead of the Aug. 1 closing of the deal, amount to about 40 percent of Beats’ global workforce, sources said.”
“The Beats buy is widely aimed at giving Apple a fresh impetus in connecting with a hip design-focused consumer — as well as a toehold in the rapidly expanding streaming music world,” Atkinson reports. “‘Last week everyone was given an offer from Apple. Some were transitional offers with a set end date,’ a source close to the situation said.”
“Beats’ management — including music chiefs Luke Wood and Ian Rogers and creative boss Trent Reznor — will join Apple, according to Beats insiders,” Atkinson reports. “News of an unspecified number of layoffs at Beats was first reported in tech blog 9To5Mac.”
Read more in the full article here.
“Many Beats employees in development and creative roles have been offered positions at Apple. Many of these employees will be offered space in Apple’s Cupertino offices, but Apple is said to plan to retain the Santa Monica offices, and select engineers on the Beats Music streaming service will continue working out of Southern California,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac. “An email from Apple CEO Tim Cook detailed earlier this year that Beats hardware employees would transition to Phil Schiller’s team in Cupertino, so it seems likely that the headphone and speaker makers will make up the majority of the new Cupertino staff.”
“Beats’ support, finance and HR departments are said to have already been largely dismantled, with some workers being laid off in the past few weeks, a few offered definite positions in Cupertino, and others being offered positions until the end of January 2015,” Gurman reports. “Apple is said to have this week set up a dedicated phone hotline for Beats employees to speak with Apple Human Resources staff about severance packages or transition plans.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good luck to all those affected except for those from Beats Electronics’ Department of Overmodulated Bass, in which case: Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
I would hope the severance packages would be absurdly generous. This acquisition by Apple is not a survival move by any stretch. They have more cash on-hand than most nations.
I was just thinking the same thing about severance. A large percentage of their yearly salary, and a large chunk of Apple stock, and financial advice if they need it.
Just because Apple has a lot of money does not mean that the company should do anything “absurdly generous.” I own AAPL and that makes a small part of it my money. Apple should be fair and reasonable in this situation. I worked very hard to acquire the small amount of AAPL that I have, so I am not in favor of tossing out “large chunks” to other people, TMac. This is not a kingdom, it is a business.
Beats management made quite a bit of money out of the deal which resulted in these layoffs. Perhaps they might be willing to share their largesse?
Fair and reasonable isn’t firing 200 people before the acquisition even concludes. Take a paltry 1% of the purchase price and give these people a real severance.
You have your definition and I have mine. Apple is a business. As I pointed out, the people who profited from this transaction, the ones who arranged it and signed it, have a few extra $B now. They can choose to make more videos crowing about how damn rich they are going to be, or they can spend just a small fraction compensating the workers who helped them to succeed and make that profitable acquisition possible.
Apple should be fair and reasonable. But I do not want the company to be “absurdly generous” or toss “large chunks of AAPL” at them. That misguided sense of endless wealth and over-generosity is how our country got itself into its current financial mess.
No it was the bankers, speculators and their acolytes thinking that playing with others real money and jobs played a very minor role in their digital game of monopoly so they could earn yet another billion or two. That’s how unfettered capitalism works, when things are good it’s amazingly successful and unmatchable, when confidence in the myths of electronic value dissipates for what reason real or contrived the whole edifice will collapse as value is increasingly perceived rather than real in modern western economies.
Exactly. I don’t recall DrDre’s drunken “I am soooo rich” video appearing to take any of the people that made him that way, into consideration.
As you said, very well, Apple is a business. These are fair and reasonable business decisions.
Beets, pears, apples…..where’s the cherry on top?
Maybe Apple should buy Blackberry…. 😉
Deadbeats
Geez MDN! Those people were building what Beats management wanted. And what their customers wanted. Don’t be so elitist. What a cheesy comment. Even if you have superior ears in your opinion, keep it to yourself. You are insulting the buyers more than the builders.
the arrogance of the takes are often amusing. But not always.
Beats is known for cost, not quality sound reproduction.
True, but anyone with a little knowledge can very easily alter the acoustic characteristics of any pair of Beats headphones, just by downloading one app, and spending a few minutes tweaking the sound.
Beats Solo HD’s are actually really nicely made, very comfortable for extended periods, and I personally like the simple styling.
Mine now sound pretty much as good as my Shure SE215’s, or my UE SuperFi 5 Pro IEM’s.
I have to say, though, that mine were obtained from eBay, I wasn’t going to pay out full price no matter how good the sound.
The fact remains, though, that using an EQ app you can make a huge improvement to the sound quality of Beats ‘phones.
three. billion. dollars.
Don’t forget that share options were probably given to employees and those who hold them are likely to cash in big.
MS stock goes up when they lay off, Apple’s goes down. The Max Pain crowd are going to their number, amazing how they can manipulate the markets.
How is this different from Microsoft’s history of buying competing companies then dissolving them? I’ve always hated that about Microsoft.
The difference is huge; MS buys companies in order to remove them as a threat by shutting them down.
Apple buys companies who have something to add to the Apple experience, and blends them into the OS, or native apps, and retains the developers as part of the Apple team, until such time as they wish to move on.
What an incredibly dumb editorial comment, sadly.
This comes as no surprise, as there would end up being redundant positions in the case of any merger or buyout. Apple appears to be handling it well, and professionally, as one would expect from them.