Apple & Beats: Ten Years Later, Grading the Beats Acquisition, Apple / Beats Lessons

Hello everyone. It’s good to be back after a long weekend.

Today’s update will be a bit different as we look back at Apple’s largest acquisition to date: Beats.

Let’s jump right in.

Apple & Beats: Ten Years Later

Today marks the tenth anniversary of Apple announcing its Beats acquisition. Rumors of the acquisition began to leak a few weeks prior in early May 2014. Some of you may have remembered the now infamous YouTube video of Dr. Dre prematurely celebrating the deal.

Things were made official on May 28th, 2024 with Apple paying $3B for Beats (down from the rumored $3.2B).

No subsequent Apple M&A deal has come close to that $3B price tag – the closest was $1B for a majority of Intel's smartphone modem business. It’s safe to say no other deal has been as controversial as Beats either.

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