Apple is set to buy Dre’s Beats Electronics, the popular headphone (Beats by Dre) maker and music company Beats Electronics for a reported $3.2 billion.
It is expected that this deal be announced very soon and if this acquisition actually goes through, it will become Apples’s largest acquisition ever. Apple’s largest acquisition ever is the $429 million it paid in 1996 to acquire NeXT and its NeXTstep operating system, a computer manufacturer that Steve Jobs after he was ousted by Apple.
The popular high-end headphone company was founded by producer-rapper, Dr Dre and long time music industry executive Jimmy Iovine in 2008. Earlier this year, they launched a premium music streaming service called Beats Music, which many assume is the main reason for Apple buying the company off.
This transaction has generated lots of mixed reactions because back in 2011, hardware manufacturer HTC paid about $300 Million to acquire half the company. Beats later bought back all of HTC’s shares and then got $500 million investment from a private equity firm Carlyle Group.