Rapper Dr. Dre’ becoming richest hip hop artist ever with his new $3.2billion “Beats by Dre'” deal

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The first billionaire in hip hop!: Dr Dre celebrates as it’s revealed Apple will buy his Beats earphones for $3.2 billion in its biggest ever acquisition
Beats was founded by music producer Jimmy Iovine and the hip-hop star Dr Dre and until recently was best known for its headphones
It started a subscription-based music streaming service earlier this year
Apple already has its own iTunes store which is the world’s largest music download service
It also launched iTunes Radio last year
Apple now has access to Beats streaming music service allowing it to compete with on Spotify
Headphone line will be sold alongside Apple’s iconic white earbuds
Could lead to a more comprehensive music subscription service from Apple

By REUTERS

Dr. Dre celebrated his headphones deal with Apple last night by declaring himself the richest man in hip hop.
Stylish headphone maker Beats Electronics (also known as ‘Beats By Dre’) finalized a deal to sell to Apple for a reported $3.2 billion.
Within hours of the news, the star was seen in a video alongside R&B singer Tyrese Gibson boasting about the deal.
‘First billionaire in hip-hop, right here on the mother-****** west coast,’ Dre says to the camera.

Source:www.dailymail.co.uk/

Tyrese implores Forbes to change its Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest people in America although the deal may not be enough to get him on the list.
Dre’s stake in Beats currently stands at somewhere around 25%. After taxes he would likely be left with a net worth of around $800 million making him hip-hop’s richest man, toppling P. Diddy by $100 million.
Apple is in the market for a subscription-based music service to complement its ‘iRadio’ ad-based offering, launched in 2013 as part of an attempt to jump into a music-streaming arena then split between a handful of startups such as Pandora Inc.

Founded by rapper Dr. Dre and legendary music producer Jimmy Iovine, Beats Electronics is best known for its ‘Beats by Dr Dre’ line of trendy headphones that vie with the likes of Skullcandy Inc, Sennheiser Electronic and Bose Corp.
This year, it launched a music service that has won plaudits for its slick design and human music curation, versus the computer-algorithms that determine playlists for most of its rivals.
But analysts on Thursday questioned whether Beats, valued at just $1 billion during its last funding round in September, was worth that price.

 

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Feeling good: Dr. Dre (left) celebrated his headphones deal with Apple last night by declaring himself the richest man in hip hop
What a deal! Apple is orchestrating a $3.2 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics, the headphone maker and music streaming distributor founded by hip-hop star Dr. Dre and record producer Jimmy Iovine
Apple had more than $130 billion in cash as of the end of March, but the vast majority of that is parked abroad and investors have called on the company to return more cash in the form of dividends and buybacks.
Apple-watchers have speculated that the company that upended the music industry – and today is the single largest seller of tunes – was contemplating a Spotify-like on-demand music service to go with iRadio service and iTunes.
‘This is really puzzling,’ said Forrester analyst James McQuivey, who said there was huge overlap between the two companies’ customer base. ‘You buy companies today to get technologies that no one else … or customers that no one has.’
‘They must have something hidden … under the hood,’ he said.
In two of the largest deals this year, Facebook paid $19 billion for WhatsApp and its half-billion users, and it paid $2 billion for Oculus VR and its cutting-edge virtual reality headset.
Apple declined to comment on the report. Beats Electronics did not respond to requests for comment on the news, which was reported first by the Financial Times.
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