Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine have hit the jackpot with yet another lucrative deal for their company Beats By Dr. Dre. The Hip-Hop superstar and Jimmy handed over 51 per cent of ‘Beats Electronic’ to Asian smartphone giant ‘HTC’ for an estimated $300 million. The original headphones where released in 2008 and became a big hit with music lovers across the globe.
“The marriage of these two companies is very, very good. We are very good for each other,” says Jimmy Iovine, the co-founder of Beats By Dr. Dre. “With HTC’s innovation, technology and leadership, we feel we can really compete with anybody in this area.”
Beats specialize in making headphones, customized for a number of Hip-Hop and Pop stars such as Lady Gaga, Diddy and Justin Bieber, who all put their names to the brand. The deal gives HTC just over half of the audio-technology supplier, which promises to deliver an improved sound experience. By the end of the year, HTC plan to sell smartphones that are integrated with Beats audio.
“Getting Beats audio into HTC phones is one of the first things we’re going to do,” Iovine said in an interview. “We are going to be in business with HTC and they’re going to help us and were going to help them in every way they can. And you’ll see Beats audio in just about every phone or tablet they want it to be in, but they know what we’ve built and respect the brand and will help us continue to innovate and push Beats further.”
“This will give us opportunity to innovate,” HTC Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou said. “When Jimmy and Dre started this, they had a very specific vision of what Beats would be,” added Beats Electronics president Luke Williams. “It wasn’t about headphones, it was about fixing the degradation of sound.”
