Mixed Reaction To Apple Beats Deal: Om Malik, Mark Mulligan, Wall Street Analysts & More
When you get push the fanboys dreaming about a Jimmy/Dre Apple takeover, reaction to Apple's $3 billion deal to buy Beats Electronics and Beats Music, as well as, to give Beats execs key roles in Cupertino, is at best mixed. In fact's is general pretty pesimsitic.
"Deals like Beats won’t be the last such deal. As a friend of mine once told me, that for most of us — time buys us money, for those who are rich, money buys time. Apple’s just buying time!" – Om Malik, founder GigaOm
- "To see this kind of money spent for a company that gets most of its revenue from hardware business is not what we want to see.” – Dan Niles, chief investment officer of hedge fund AlphaOne Capital Partners
- "Apple has been locked in a process of soul searching, trying to work out what it can do to remain relevant in the digital music business in order to remain relevant in the device business. Beats is a ‘if you can’t beat them, buy them’ solution. – Mark Mulluigan, entertainment industry analyst and consultant for MIDiA.
- "Apple is buying more flair, swagger and song-picking savvy with its $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics." – Associated Press
- "We are struggling to see the rationale behind this move. Beats would of course bring a world class brand in music to Apple, but Apple already has a world class brand and has never acquired a brand for a brand's sake (i.e., there are no non-Apple sub-brands under the company umbrella). Separately, we are not aware of any intellectual property within Beats that would drive the acquisition justification beyond the brand." - Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray
- "Why the heck would Apple go and spend money on a company that makes expensive headphones (that are more of a fashion statement than an audiophile’s must-have). Apple makes headphones, and Apple knows all about expensive, they don’t need some rapper to tell them how to do it…Nor does Apple need anyone to show them how to design good looking kit." - Karen Haslam of Macworld UK
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Bruce- read that first sentence back. Yup it’s horrible and the grammar is even worse. How do you not have an editor?
Beats Music offers nothing different than the other players in the music service business. Why Apple sees them as special is the question. The curated playlists bit has to be a smokescreen.
More thoughts on this here: http://www.alternapop.com/2014/05/28/thoughts-apples-acquisition-beats/
Bruce, love you man but it pains me to read stuff like this:
When you get push the fanboys dreaming about a Jimmy/Dre Apple takeover, reaction to Apple’s $3 billion deal to buy Beats Electronics and Beats Music, as well as, to give Beats execs key roles in Cupertino, is at best mixed.
This is the beginning of the end for AAPL.