Big news in the tech world this morning, so big that it’s trending worldwide on Twitter in fact, with a report in the Financial Times (via MacRumors and multiple other sources) that Apple is currently in talks to acquire Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion.
If the deal were to go ahead, it would see Apple owning not just the Beats audio equipment business, which includes Beats headphones, but also the Beats Music streaming music service. The Financial Times’ source said that the Beats management team would report to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The Beats brand was created by two legendary music figures, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, who succeeded in recreating their huge success in the music world with an aspirational tech product that turned headphones into a fashionable object of desire.
MacRumors notes that if the deal goes ahead, and Apple pays the rumoured sum of $3.2 billion, this would far exceed its previous highest payment of $404 million to acquire NeXT in 1996.
Source: MacRumors
Picture: Beats by Dre Instagram