Apple buys Beats Audio for $3 billion

It's now official. Apple has purchased Beats Audio for $3 billion. $400 million of that amount will vest over time. It is the largest purchase ever made by Apple, and represents a small amount of the company's $160 billion cash hoard. Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Beats Audio's co-founders, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, will be spending more time in Silicon Valley, working for Apple. Cook also said that the Beats brand will remain intact.



The purchase is an admission by Apple that its pay-per-tune payment plan for iTunes is not working. Apple wants to have a service that charges users monthly ...