Earlier this month, news broke that Dr. Dre was set to ink a huge deal with Apple over the acquisition of his Beats Electronics. The deal was for a whopping $3.2 billion and would make Dr. Dre “Hip Hop’s First Billionaire.” The problem in all of this is that the news broke prematurely and we all know that the word “prematurely” is never used to describe anything good. Dr. Dre and his Cali comrades were seen in a video that went viral in which Dre is clearly drunk boasting that he is “Hip Hop’s First Billionaire,” while Tyrese is C-walking and doing his best impression of a cheerleader for the Doctor.
According to Billboard.com, that same video of Dre’s along with a few other things may be holding up the deal that we all expected to close weeks ago. It seems like Apple is not too thrilled over the news being leaked too early, which is understandable as Apple is attempting to cross all of its T’s and dot all of it I’s. Apple Inc. is the world’s largest tech company, they don’t become that by making foolish decisions. Remember that this is the company that Steve Jobs built, but also keep in mind that he is no longer there and this is not the kind of thing Apple is used to.
While Apple is trying to figure out what is all included in this $3.2 billion deal, they are also scratching their heads on how Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre will fit in. Are they taking executive roles at Apple or will they be consultants?
On top of all of this, Apple is trying to make sense of Beats Music. The streaming music platform has underperformed with less than 200,000 subscribers and has left both parties at a standstill as far as valuation goes.
Seems like Dr. Dre spoke too soon and showed us his poker face way too early, now Apple is reconsidering the whole deal and hip hop is still without its first billionaire. To be continued…
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