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Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

nytimes.com

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Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#321

Post by gadders »

callmeed wrote: post #198

Honest question: is there a statute of limitations on what the tech world will tolerate with regards to misogynistic behavior (or bad behavior in general)? Or do people just pick and choose what they want to fight? I ask because everyone rallied behind RadiumOne's CEO being canned after he beat up his girlfriend [0]. Similar with the Mozilla CEO (granted, the offense was different ... but it's interesting to point ou…

I think it depends who they are:

Mark Wahlberg, beat up a korean store owner - never mentioned

Sean Penn, beat up his wife, Madonna - never mentioned.

Julian Assange - rapist (allegedly)

Harry Reid - made remarks about Obama only being successful due to being "light skinned"

Bjork - beat up a female reporter

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#322

Post by easytiger »

asimpletune wrote: post #161

I just want to go on record with an entirely different idea as to why Apple is buying beats. They're going to make a label. Why Apple doesn't do streaming: Apple hates committing to something unless it's absolutely perfect. There are numerous examples, but NFC technology is a good one that comes to mind. Granted, they've made mistakes, like Mobile Me, but that was due to poor implementation, rather than immature tech…

> Apple hates committing to something unless it's absolutely perfect.

Hilarious

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#323

Post by arrrg »

rpgmaker wrote: post #279
lukifer wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public remorse (even if feigned) matters. The internet would have forgiven Eich if he had publicly displayed regret with his donation, rather than tacitly standing behind it.

I don't agree with Eich views on marriage at all but it was refreshing to see that he DID NOT do what you suggest (which would've been a very hypocritical thing to do) and stuck to his believes.

Lying about a change of heart is obviously not ok. So, yeah, in a sense it is refreshing to not see someone lie about that. However, there is nothing wrong about stating that you had a genuine change of heart if you actually had one. My personal policy is to always believe that but also look at future actions.

Sticking to your beliefs is definitely not admirable, though. I’m not sure why you are claiming that. Sticking to your beliefs in itself is worthless.

If your beliefs are worthwhile then sticking to them is obviously the right thing to do, if they are not then not. You can’t just say that sticking to your beliefs is worthwhile, no matter what.

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#324

Post by jokoon »

jokoon wrote: post #91
taylorlapeyre wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter if you're paying for sound quality, fashion, or the brand name. They cost $150-$300. That's higher-end.

it's not worth that price

hello beats audio employees

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#325

Post by ZeroGravitas »

batiudrami wrote: post #283
callmeed wrote: post #198

Honest question: is there a statute of limitations on what the tech world will tolerate with regards to misogynistic behavior (or bad behavior in general)? Or do people just pick and choose what they want to fight? I ask because everyone rallied behind RadiumOne's CEO being canned after he beat up his girlfriend [0]. Similar with the Mozilla CEO (granted, the offense was different ... but it's interesting to point ou…

The assault charges notwithstanding (I don't really have an answer for that, other than "it was a long time ago", as per other comments), NWA is an interesting case. If you listen to 'Straight out of Compton', one of the defining albums in "gangster rap" as a genre, it paints a picture of LA which is like a dystopian future - where the world is blacks vs whites, people who live on the street vs cops, and where the op…

There's a similar split in stand up comedy, where if you wear a costume your "character" can say vile things and people laugh in the knowledge that you don't actually believe them, but if a stand up comedian's "character" looks no different from the actual stand up would off-stage, then people often mistake these things for the person's actual views.

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#326

Post by robmcm »

kareemsabri wrote: post #227
callmeed wrote: post #198

Honest question: is there a statute of limitations on what the tech world will tolerate with regards to misogynistic behavior (or bad behavior in general)? Or do people just pick and choose what they want to fight? I ask because everyone rallied behind RadiumOne's CEO being canned after he beat up his girlfriend [0]. Similar with the Mozilla CEO (granted, the offense was different ... but it's interesting to point ou…

I would argue that: a) Dr. Dre is a performer. Rap, distasteful as you may find it, is performance art. It's the same as gangster movies. Would you object to Apple working with Scorcese? It's a character, albeit slightly autobiographical, but not much different than someone like Bukowski, IMO. b) The Dr. Dre - Dee Barnes incident took place in 1991, almost 25 years ago. Should an isolated incident, for which he has m…

Indeed, 25 years is a long time and I think if Dre had attacked a reporter from the WSJ for leaking the Beats acquisition the deal would have been off.

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#327

Post by Corrado »

nnnnni wrote: post #274
abalone wrote: post #70

The most interesting reveal from Tim Cook's quote is that he only mentions the music service and the talent, not the headphones. That's super interesting. It basically means Apple looked at this like a typical Apple aquihire / component technology purchase (of the service), that just happened to have a multi-billion dollar profitable accessories business attached to it. That makes it a very unique kind of deal.

I hope that you're onto something there -- the headphones are awful!

Are all of their headphone models awful or just the lower end models? I know that most of the reviews I've heard are of the lower end models and they are pretty much universally panned as a fashion accessory. However, the high end Beats headphones seem to be pretty good; well built with a flat response curve.

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#328

Post by jotm »

arrrg wrote: post #237
jotm wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really true - Sony and Sennheiser (as well as AKG and other less known companies) had the market covered already.

Audiophiles (broadly speaking, even if - like myself – they really don’t want to be called that) and people working with audio bought those, hardly anyone else. Those aren’t the people who buy Beats. That’s a totally different (and much smaller) market. Getting people who don’t care about how their music sounds that much and who don’t work with audio to seriously consider buying $300 headphones, that’s the achievemen…

I guess it's a win-win for everyone: Beats got these people to spend $300 on headphones, then these people realize that they want to get real quality for their money and they go get something better :-).

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#329

Post by jotm »

dublinben wrote: post #189
smackfu wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is that Beats expanded the market for $200-400 headphones. Yes, Sony sold headphones in that range, but they didn't sell them to every high school student who wanted to look cool.

This just further underlines the point that Beats are not actually high-end headphones, but fashion items. As such, they're incredibly vulnerable to changing tastes. In the areas around me, Beats have already plummeted from prominence or popularity among young people and cool people.

I've seen that happen, as well. People who can't really afford it pay a couple of hundred for a cool red B on their headphones, then they wisen up and realize that a cool S is a better choice.

Re: Apple Confirms Its $3 Billion Deal for Beats Electronics

#330

Post by [deleted] »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #178
stcredzero wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you arrive at the 15% margin figure?

($3 billion purchase price [1] / 14.9x AAPL P/E ratio [2]) / $1.3 billion 2013 Beats headphone sales [3]. We are asking how much in earnings (E) would Beats need to earn to give a $3 billion price (P) no more than a 14.9x P/E ratio. We then turn those minimum earnings E and turn them into a quick-and-dirty margin by dividing E by sales. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/technology/apple-confirms-... [2] https://w…

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