Beats Electronics
 |
|
|
Formerly called
|
Beats by Dr. Dre |
|---|---|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Cupertino, California |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Luke Wood (President) Matthew Costello (COO) will.i.am (partner) Noel Lee (Inventor) |
| Products |
|
| Revenue | US$ 1.5 billion (2013) |
|
Number of employees
|
700 (As of 2014[update]) |
| Parent |
HTC (50.1%; 2010–2012, 24.84%; 2012–2013) Apple Inc. (2014–present) |
| Website | beatsbydre.com |
Beats Electronics LLC (also known as Beats by Dr. Dre) is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. that produces audio products. Headquartered in Culver City, California, U.S., the company was founded by music producer and rapper Dr. Dre and formerInterscope Geffen A&M Records chairman Jimmy Iovine.
The subsidiary's product line is primarily focused on headphones and speakers. The company's original product line was manufactured in partnership with the AV equipment company Monster Cable Products. Following the end of its contract with the company, Beats took further development of its products in-house. In 2014, the company expanded into the online music market with the launch of its subscription-based streaming service, Beats Music.
In 2011, NPD Group reported that Beats' market share was 64% in the U.S for headphones priced higher than $100, and the brand was valued at US$1 billion in September 2013.
For a period, the company was majority-owned by Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC. The company reduced its stake to 25% in 2012, and sold its remaining stake back to the company in 2013. Concurrently, Carlyle Group replaced HTC as a minority shareholder, alongside Dr. Dre and Iovine in late 2013. On August 1, 2014, Apple Inc. acquired Beats for US $3 billion in a cash and stock deal, the largest acquisition in Apple's history.
The company was formally established in 2006, a time when Iovine perceived two key problems in the music industry: the impact of piracy on music sales and the substandard audio quality provided by Apple's plastic earbuds. Iovine later recalled that Dre said to him: "Man, it's one thing that people steal my music. It's another thing to destroy the feeling of what I've worked on." Iovine sought the opinions of musicians with "great taste", such as M.I.A., Pharrell Williams, will.i.am, and Gwen Stefani during the early developmental stage. Beats initially partnered with Monster Cable, an audio and video component manufacturer based in Brisbane, California, to manufacture and develop the first Beats-branded products, and debuted its first product, Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones, in late 2008.
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