Ain’t Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang. Beats, Apple deal set to close

Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are on a tear. Everything these guys touch turns to gold, and Beats can now be added to that list.

Coming in from the New York Post, detailing the impeding close of the deal with Apple:

The tech titan is expected to announce its acquisition of Beats Electronics this week — at the slightly reduced price of $3 billion, The Post has learned.

A report in the Financial Times earlier this month tipping the deal put the price at $3.2 billion.

While the acquisition price has slightly been reduced, as Business Inside reports:

Apple is reportedly interested in Beats for three reasons: It gets a high-margin headphone business, it gets a streaming music service, and it gets Iovine, who is a pretty sharp executive, to run its content strategy.

How successful are these red pill men. Let’s break things down and summarise just how accomplished these guys are.

Jimmy Iovine’s resume, pre-Beats is ridiculously awesome (via Wikipedia):

In the early 1970s, Iovine became a recording engineer, working with John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen, among others. By 1973, Iovine was on staff at the New York studio the Record Plant, where he worked on Springsteen’s Born to Run and Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell albums. He came to prominence via his work on the 1978 Patti Smith album Easter, which included her Top 40 hit, “Because the Night”. He teamed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on Damn the Torpedoes and U2 on Rattle & Hum. Iovine also produced Bella Donna (the first solo album for Stevie Nicks), Making Movies for Dire Straits, and Get Close for The Pretenders, in addition to many others.

In 1990, Iovine co-founded Interscope Records, which became Interscope Geffen A&M after a merger in 1999.

In 2002, Iovine co-produced the Academy Award-winning Eminem movie, 8 Mile, which opened at #1 at the box office and went on to gross more than 240 million dollars worldwide. Additionally, Iovine executive produced the 2009 LeBron James documentary, More Than A Game and 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’.

In 2008, Iovine teamed up with Dr. Dre to co-found Beats By Dre, a headphones brand. Due in part to the design of its headphones and an expansion into smartphones and automotive audio systems, the company has captured 40 percent market share of the headphones industry.

Dr. Dre is no less apex alpha male (via Wikipedia):

Dre began his career as a member of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru and later found fame with the influential gangsta rap group N.W.A with Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella, which popularized the use of explicit lyrics in rap to detail the violence of street life. His 1992 solo debut The Chronic, released under Death Row Records, led him to become one of the best-selling American performing artists of 1993 and to win a Grammy Award for the single “Let Me Ride”. That same year he produced Death Row labelmate Snoop Dogg’s quadruple platinum debut Doggystyle.

In 1996, he left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment. He produced a compilation album titled Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath in 1996, and released a solo album titled 2001 in 1999. During the 2000s, he focused on production for other artists, while occasionally contributing vocals to songs. Dr. Dre signed Eminem and 50 Cent to his record label in 1998 and 2003 respectively, while contributing production on their albums. He has won six Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year. Dr. Dre has also had acting roles in movies such as Set It Off, The Wash and Training Day. Rolling Stone ranked Dre at 56 on their list of “100 Greatest Artists of All-Time”.

Now add a whopper $3 billion buyout from the largest company in the world, Apple Inc., to the above.

Let’s never forget the great memories that these two titans of industry have given all of us men over the years through their song production, talent and pure hard work.

Dr. Dre Ft. Snoop Dogg – Ain’t nothing but a G thang

U2 All I Want is You, Produced by Jimmy Iovine

References:

http://nypost.com/2014/05/27/apple-cuts-purchase-price-of-beats/

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-cuts-the-price-of-the-beats-deal-says-the-ny-post-2014-5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Iovine