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Whatever happened to the Apple deal for Beats?

Beats was cofounded by music mogul Jimmy Iovine, left, and rapper Dr. Dre.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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It’s been just over a week since news broke that Apple was about to pay $3.2 billion for Beats, the headphone and music streaming company. Reports and sources originally said the deal would likely be announced early this week.

So, what’s up?

Recode reported recently that the timing of the deal has been pushed back a week. On Friday a person familiar with the talks also told us that a deal could be announced next week.

What’s not clear is whether the original sources were just wrong about the timing, or whether there’s been a hiccup in the talks. So far there’s been no word about whether this was an unexpected delay.

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Even with the passage of time, the news that Apple was poised to possibly make the largest acquisition in its history continued to provoke widespread debate across the Internet.

Does Apple want Beats for its hip headphones? Does it want it for the Beats Music streaming service that launched earlier this year?

If so, the app won’t exactly rocket Apple to the front of the streaming pack, ahead of rivals like Spotify and Pandora.

According to leaked documents posted online, Beats has a mere 110,992 subscribers several months after launch. The documents also provoked some grumbling because of the royalty rates that Beats pays artists, what some musicians saw as low.

Adding to the fun and games: Beats was just sued by the founder of a music streaming service the company acquired in 2012.

In mid-2012, Beats, which then was just a company that made speakers and headphones, acquired music streaming service MOG. David Hyman, MOG cofounder, said he was fired by Beats before his one-year anniversary, which is when his equity incentives were scheduled to vest.

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The Wrap reports:

“The suit claims that, under an incentive plan adopted during Hyman’s tenure, he would be entitled to compensation including 2.5 percent of the company’s ‘currently outstanding equity interests,’ with 1 percent due on the first anniversary of Hyman’s date of employment, and subsequent installments due in subsequent months. The suit also claims that he was promised a grant of 25 percent of the company’s outstanding equity interests following adoption of the incentive plan if the company achieved a fair market value of $500 million or more.”

Hyman is asking for a judgment of $20 million, though one has to wonder how an Apple acquisition might affect some of those numbers. Beats has not yet responded to the lawsuit.

Beats was cofounded by music mogul Jimmy Iovine and rapper Dr. Dre.

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