Reports are flying that Apple is acquiring Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion, but Dr. Dre may have confirmed the rumors himself with a video and a selfie photo posted on Facebook.
The famed hip-hop star posted a video that features him alongside R&B singer and actor Tyrese Gibson, in which the two claim Dre is now the first billionaire rapper.
“Billionaire boys’ club for real, homie,” Gibson says in the video. “The Forbes list just changed.”
“The first billionaire in hip-hop,” Dre says later in the video, which included a caption that said “Dr Dre ON THE night his deal went public that he did with Apple 3.2 BILLION!!!!”
The two also posted a selfie photo with the caption “Apple = Beats 3.2 BILLION!!!!!! The night everything changed!!!!” The photo and video were soon taken down, but not before others on the Internet could make copies.
The video and photo were posted following a report by the Financial Times that said Apple was close to acquiring Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion.
Beats Electronics is the maker of the high-end Beats by Dre headphones, which first went on sale in 2008. Since then, the company has grown and reportedly posted $1.2 billion in revenue last year.
The company also launched Beats Music in January. That service lets customers stream music for $10 a month. It rivals other similar services, most notably Swedish startup Spotify.
If Apple acquires Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion, it would be the Cupertino, Calif., company’s largest acquisition ever.
Currently, the most expensive purchase Apple has ever made was in 1997 when it purchased Steve Jobs’ NeXT Computer Systems for $400 million. That acquisition brought Jobs back to the company he founded and laid the foundation for Mac OS X, the operating system Apple still uses for its Mac laptop and desktops.
Prior to the posting of the Dre photo and video, Apple and Beats Electronics declined to comment on the possible deal.
source: latimes.com
