Beats Electronics, LLC is a producer of
audio products and
equipment headquartered in
Santa Monica, California. The company was founded by
hip-hop producer
Andre "Dr. Dre" Young and
Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records chairman
Jimmy Iovine, and primarily produces products under the brand
Beats by Dr. Dre.
Its products were manufactured under exclusive license by
consumer electronics company
Monster Cable
since 2009. Beats has not renewed its five year contract with Monster,
which ended late 2012. The company now manufactures all of its own
products.
History
The company was founded in 2006, and debuted its first product
Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones, in late 2008.
In August 2010, mobile phone manufacturer
HTC
acquired a 50.1% majority share in Beats for $309 million, before
selling 25% back to the founders for $150 million, and remaining the
largest shareholder with 25.1 percent,
[3]
in order to provide "flexibility for global expansion while maintaining
HTC’s major stake and commercial exclusivity in mobile.
] The purchase was intended to allow HTC to compete with other cellphone makers.
The purchase also granted HTC exclusive rights to manufacture smartphones with Beats-branded audio systems.
Despite its majority acquisition, HTC would still allow Beats to operate as an autonomous company
.
In July 2012, HTC sold back nearly half of its stake in the high-end
headphone maker for $150 million. HTC said in an e-mailed statement that
it would still be the largest outside shareholder in Beats after the
share sale and the two companies would continue to work closely,
including a joint global marketing campaign later that year. “HTC and
Beats today announced a realignment of their business agreement that
provides Beats with more flexibility for global expansion while
maintaining HTC’s major stake and commercial exclusivity in
mobile.........Under the terms of the agreement, the founding members of
Beats will buy back 25 percent of its total shares for a total of
approximately 75 percent ownership, with HTC remaining the largest
outside shareholder with approximately 25 percent,” HTC said in the
statement.
On January 12, 2012,
BusinessWeek
reported that Beats and Monster would not renew their production
contract and would be ending their partnership by the end of 2012.
Monster began to market its own line of headphone products at the start
of the year, aiming towards an older demographic, women, and business
professionals.
In March 2012, reports surfaced that Beats was planning to acquire the
online music service
MOG.
The acquisition was officially confirmed on July 2, 2012, reported to
have been between $10 to $16 million. Beats chose to acquire MOG due to
its use of high quality streams for its music library—which supports
Beats' aim to create "a truly end-to-end music experience." The
acquisition did not include the company's blog and advertising network,
the MOG Music Network,
which was sold in a separate transaction to the radio and online media company
Townsquare Media in August 2012.
Products
Personal Audio
Beats' original product line were
Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.
In promotional materials, Dr. Dre outlined the line's advantages by
alleging that listeners were not able to hear "all" of the music with
most headphones, and that Beats would allow people to "hear what the
artists hear, and listen to the music the way they should: the way I
do."
[9]
The following is a list of their products:
Beats Audio
Computers
Alongside Beats headphones, the company has also licensed the Beats
brand, under the name Beats Audio, and technology to other
manufacturers. In 2011,
HP began to offer
personal computers equipped with
Beats Audio systems. The system features a software
equalizer with a preset allegedly optimized for higher quality sound output. Originally reserved for its premium
Envy line of laptops, HP now offers Beats Audio in nearly all of its laptops,
all-in-one TouchSmart desktops, and tablets.
Vehicles
Beats also partnered with
Chrysler, incorporating a 10-speaker
Beats by Dr. Dre sound system in its
2012 Chrysler 300S luxury automobile.
Since the Chrysler 300 debuted the collaboration, Chrysler has begun offering Beats Audio in other models, including the
Dodge Charger and North American version of the
Fiat 500.
Phones
Following its acquisition of a stake in Beats, HTC began to release smartphones with a Beats Audio equalizer, starting with the
HTC Sensation XE/XL with Beats Audio in September 2011.
Other new HTC phones, such as the
HTC Incredible 4G,
HTC Rezound,
HTC One X,
HTC Evo 4G LTE,
HTC One V,
HTC One S and
HTC 8X also include Beats Audio.
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