HTC Acquires 51% of Dre's Beats Electronics For $300 Million

[TRG]

Super producer Dr. Dre and his company Beats Electronics will sell a 51% stake of the company to Taiwanese telephone maker HTC for $300 million dollars.

Beats Electronics is a venture between Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and Interscope Records.

The company specializes in making high end headphones, which are customized for a variety of pop stars, who sell them to their fan base.

In addition to the Beats by Dre line, Beats Electronics has made headphones for artists such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and others.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the company was acquired to improve the sound quality on phones, music, video games and movies for HTC.

"This will give us opportunity to innovate," HTC Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou said.

Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine will continue to run Beats Electronics.

"When Jimmy and Dre started this, they had a very specific vision of what Beats would be," said Beats Electronics president Luke Williams. "It wasn't about headphones, it was about fixing the degradation of sound."

http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2011/08/11/22862402.aspx

[Okka]

Goddamn, that's crazy.

[The_Ripper]

Goddamn, that's crazy.

and you wonder why detox has never been a priority to dre...

[The_Ripper]

$100 Dre, $200 iovine. Or maybe the jew must split $100 millions with UMG ?

[Will_B]

Holy fucking shit! Well that's why its business first, music last for Dre.

[Bungalow]

Look out for detox...

[MistaNova]

I thought the Asian markets all went down the drain since the U.S. lost one of it's As. How the hell did a taiwanese company come up with enough money for that?

[Will_B]

They sell all those Smart Phones to the west. Massive profits.

[Quadruple OG]

Goddamn, that's crazy.

and you wonder why detox has never been a priority to dre...

If I'm making $100 million off the sale (and still receiving profits from it since he and Jimmy still have 49%), I'd just retire on an island somewhere and forget about all those singles that flopped. Maybe just do a Snoop and just tour every couple years.

[Quadruple OG]

According to some reports it's a 40/40/20 split between Dre/Iovine/Universal Music Group. Dre would supposedly be receiving $120 million out of this deal.

[V2DHeart]

Selling such a large stake so quickly? Jimmy and Dre must know that they're about to fall off, and need to latch onto the mobile companies to keep it going. They must be seeing that the average consumer will move onto the next thing within a year or two..

If this brand really was the best out there, then they'd have the confidence, and wouldn't 'need' to sell such a large stake, and so early on too

[Davizz]

So they will lose control on the company, anyway that's a lot of money for a musician nowdays, offcourse he doesn't care that much about "Detox".

[E Dub]

really thought apple would have been all over a move like that

[Matty]

asia and by extension asian companies have a LOT more capital than america, they are buying up stuff everywhere.

[Suga Foot]

I was just about to start looking for a new cell phone.  I think I'll wait for a beats by dre phone.