Apple close to purchasing Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion
According to The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and multiple publications, Apple is close to finishing a deal where they would purchase music giant Beats Electronics. The acquisition of the popular headphone manufacturer, which was founded by rapper Dr. Dre in 2008, would be the largest in Apple's history and would give them a large foothold on the market.
The deal is rumored to be for the amount of $3.2 billion, and would include both the headphone manufacturing and streaming music aspects of the company. Unfortunately, neither company opted to comment on the reports and other details are still scarce.
This wouldn't be the first major deal involving the audio company, as HTC previously purchased 50.1% of Beats Electronics for $309 million in 2011 before selling back half of that in 2012. Beats also launched their streaming Beats Music service in January of this year, and with it being a major competitor for iTunes Radio, this could take Apple's music services to another level.
Source(s)
The Wall Street Journal: https://twitter.com/WSJbreakingnews/status/464531419323465728
Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/08/us-apple-offer-idUSBREA4711X20140508