Keen for the Beats

Most people I know fancy themselves as music aficionados and more specifically their music choices are superior to other folks. They just don't get it, right? And you can mock them and suggest that they are listening to X or Y (Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift) but the truth is that X or Y have sold many albums, so they might be seen as commercial/mainstream/bubblegum, but that is what the people want. People love music, the rhythm is in our core, perhaps to those days that we all danced around the fire each and every evening.


I am one of those, I love my music, but not quite enough to wear headphones whilst I walk around. Headphones, earphones and speakers, that is what Apple inc. are being rumoured to be buying, a business called Beats electronics. For as much as 3.2 billion Dollars. None other than Dr. Dre is involved, in fact if you visit the website, you are met by the BeatsbyDre branding. Dr Dre is Andre Romelle Young, a 49 year old entrepreneur, producer and of course himself a recording artist, he has six Grammy's, three for producing (he is known as a perfectionist) and three for his talents in the singing department. The initial stake was a lot, I am not entirely sure what Dr. Dre could stand to net if the deal happens.


So why would Apple want to own a 6 year old business that makes fine (expensive, 300 odd Dollars apiece) headphones and speakers? Well, there is also a streaming music service, that could be worth a lot more in the coming years. Perhaps the fine speakers in both their handsets, notebooks and even motor vehicles (a Chrysler deal) means that the options could be many. But if this deal was to go ahead and as I understand it from this FT article -> Apple in talks for $3.2bn Beats deal, this would be the biggest deal that Apple would ever have done to date. Amazing. Astonishing. The next biggest transaction from that table in the FT article is a 400 million Dollar transaction in 1997 (roughly 580 million Dollars on an inflation adjusted basis), when Apple bought NeXT computer systems. Steve Jobs and Ross Perot were corporate directors at NeXT.


Music streaming seems to be the reason why Apple are interested in this business, but all the other hardware must be interesting too. Selling high end Apple branded headphones might be very attractive for many. We wait, and most likely will have news on this next Tuesday. Or so we read. Who are these people who are always familiar with the negotiations? I will tell you, non secret keepers and people that could be in trouble soon!