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Apple Reportedly in Final Talks to Acquire Beats for $3.2 Billion

Posted May 8, 2014 at 10:34pm by iClarified · 13463 views
Apple is reportedly in the final talks to acquire Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion, reports The Financial Times

According to the report, Apple is in the final-stages of talks with Beats to acquire the streaming Beats Music service, as well as the headphone/speaker division of the company. The Beats headphones have seen huge mainstream success with the collaboration with Dr. Dre and the streaming service has seen recent success.

Apple will acquire Beats' streaming music service, which launched this year, and its audio equipment business, which includes its brand of headphones and audio equipment. The Beats management team will report to Mr Cook, said people familiar with the deal.

If this deal were to go through, it would make it Apple's largest acquisition yet (Apple's largest acquisition to date was NeXT computer for $404 Million back in 1997, which brought Steve Jobs back to the company). People familiar with the matter said the deal could be announced as early as next week, however some final pieces must be put together before the deal is complete.

Apple has been rumored to be working on a complete overhaul of iTunes in order to compete with on-demand music services like Spotify. If this deal were to go through, Apple could incorporate Beats Electronics' music streaming service rather than build its own from the ground up.

Bloomberg News and The New York Times are both corroborating this report as well.

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