Skip to main content

Apple’s billion dollar bid for Beats approved by the EU

apple buys beats official dr dre tim cook
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Apple’s mega-move to expand further into the headphone business just leaped over another hurdle. The company’s $3 billion proposal for Beats Electronics has been approved by the European Commission, which handles antitrust regulation for the European Union.

The Commission concluded that the combination of Apple and Beats, both of which sell headphones in the European Economic Area (EAA), does not represent a threat to competition because their combined market share is low, and the unified company would still face a large number of global competitors like Sennheiser, Sony, and Bose. The Commission also concluded that Apple and Beats are not considered close competitors because the types of headphones they sell differ so greatly.

Apple put up its proposal to purchase Beats Electronics lock, stock, and barrel at the end of May this year, representing a massive buy-out for $2.6 billion in cash, and $400 million in shares. The acquisition of Beats, famously founded by rapper and producer Dr. Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine, was part of a strategic effort for Apple to not only improve the audio quality of its maligned headphone line, but also to bolster its street cred with the popular brand, which adds a new element of style to its products.

In addition to the popular, if not critically underwhelming Beats product arsenal, Apple is acquiring a growing music streaming service in Beats Music, which started pushing against the likes of Pandora and Spotify after its highly-publicized launch last year. The European Commission found no issue with Apple’s control of the streaming service either, concluding that it has a small space of the streaming marketplace at present, and does not give Apple “the ability and incentive to shut out competing streaming services from access to iOS.” Beats Music also does not currently operate in the EAA, available only in the U.S. and Australia.

Apple is still awaiting regulatory approval in other areas of the global marketplace, including the U.S. According to CNet, the company is hoping to lock down approval in order to complete the deal by September. Apple is not expected to have any significant regulatory opposition to its proposal going forward. However, it might see trouble from other sources. As the deal looms, Beats Electronics has recently been named in a lawsuit by Bose for patent infringement over noise canceling technologies. It is not yet known exactly what kind of damages Bose is seeking.

Still, with pockets as deep as Apple’s, a victory in court for Bose would likely be a mere bump in the road as the tech giant looks to exploit its new properties. We’ll keep an eye on the Apple/Beats saga as it develops, so stay with us.

Editors' Recommendations

Ryan Waniata
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…
Just wait. Apple’s shocking audio mistake is part of a much bigger plan
A woman wears Apple AirPods Max.

Apple did something decidedly un-Applish this week. Just as it launched lossless audio versions of every single track in its 75-million-plus-song Apple Music library, it also acknowledged that none of its wireless headphones -- including the insanely expensive $550 AirPods Max -- are currently compatible with these lossless versions. That's a pretty shocking admission from a company that typically introduces new products and features with the tagline: "It just works."

Right now, lossless audio works with just two wireless standards, and Apple's headphones don't offer either of them. Is there a method to Apple's seeming madness? Prolific Apple leaker Jon Prosser believes that we are merely in a carefully planned resting period between Apple announcements and that we'll just have to wait for the other shoe to drop.

Read more
You won’t need 17 speakers to appreciate Dolby Atmos in Apple Music
Vizio Dolby Atmos Soundbar

Shortly after Apple’s announcement yesterday that it will be adding lossless music streaming to Apple Music, Twitter was awash with hot takes, mainly in the form of jeers. “Does anyone care about lossless audio files except for the guy I dated in 2008 who made me a CD of FLAC files,” asked Wired senior writer Lauren Goode.

Goode makes a, ahem, good point: Just how big of a deal is lossless audio anyway? The answer is -- for the vast majority of folks, who happily listen to Spotify or Apple Music on an inexpensive set of wired or wireless earbuds -- not a very big deal at all. In fact, these people probably wouldn’t hear much of a difference even if their headphones could let them hear lossless audio, and the fact is, most wireless headphones simply can’t.

Read more
Why the best device for Apple’s lossless music will be an Android phone
A woman wearing the silver Apple AirPods Max.

In recent days, there’s been some talk of Apple launching a new lossless hi-fi audio tier for its Apple Music streaming music service. The leading evidence for such a move is a few lines of code in iOS 14.6 beta spotted by 9to5Mac. Those lines, which have since been removed, referenced “lossless” audio with the Apple Music app.

Apple certainly has competitive reasons to finally venture into the lossless audio category: Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, and Qobuz all offer CD-quality or better-than-CD-quality music, which leaves Apple Music as one of the last holdouts. But I can’t help feeling that Apple has boxed itself into a corner when it comes to lossless audio, and I don’t see an easy way out.
Bring back the jack?

Read more