Dr. Dre's audio company Beats, while a pretty divisive brand among audiophiles, was still a pretty profitable one back in the day. As such, it was customary that the rapper would celebrate anything that would make it a much bigger brand - though he might've celebrated a little too early.
(Photo : Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 22: Dr. Dre speaks onstage during the Producers & Engineers Wing 13th annual GRAMMY week event honoring Dr. Dre at Village Studios on January 22, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
According to Apple Insider, the iconic rapper and producer's premature leaking of the Apple and Beats deal cost him a whopping $200 million - a loss that might've even put an end to the deal altogether. This was revealed in the new book "After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul" by author Tripp Mickle.
In Chapter 10 of the book, Apple's early forays into music streaming services in the 2010s were put into the limelight. It was revealed that Jimmy Iovine (long-time friend to Dr. Dre and co-founder of Beats) had a tough time trying to convince Tim Cook to buy Beats Music and Beats Electronics.
This was after Cook himself discovered Beats and wanted to acquire it because of its "human-curated playlists," writes iMore. Not to mention, the Apple CEO also wanted some sort of a solution to the Cupertino tech giant's previous failures in entering the music streaming market.
Eventually, Apple would offer Iovine and Dr. Dre a sum over $3 billion, which was reportedly something that the two men found "hard to fathom," according to Mickle's book. This led Iovine to call a meeting for Beats' leadership to tell them that no word of the deal should leak out, because it might get spoiled and not go through.
By this time, Dre didn't "get the memo," so to speak. In the early morning following Iovine's meeting with Beats' top management, Puff Daddy called Iovine to tell him that Dre posted a Facebook video talking about the deal. It turned out to be an issue which forced Apple to take away $200 million off the initial price.
There's no clear indication that this was the case, but the parties involved seem to universally agree to it.
Read Also: Beats Studio Buds: New Colors Available, Noise Cancelling, and MORE-Locate My Beats Arrives
It's Still All Good For Beats And Dr. Dre
Of course, losing out on $200 million is not likely to dent Dr. Dre's bank account. The man is a legend in the music industry, and his current net worth (not to mention the Beats brand itself) didn't suffer much because of his premature celebration.
According to WealthyGorilla, the man is still worth an estimated $820 million. He's still not a billionaire by any means, but that kind of net worth is still pretty substantial. Not to mention, Beats still thrives under Apple's banner and is still going strong - especially in the American headphone market.
(Photo : Beats)
Beats Studio Buds
Alongside Apple's AirPods, Beats co-led the United States' market for headphones as of February 2022 with a 34.4% and 15.3% market share, respectively. This means that the Cupertino tech giant controls almost half of America's headphone business, which isn't a bad thing given the current circumstances.
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Written by RJ Pierce
