Dr Dre Set To Become First Billionaire In Hip Hop As Apple Lines Up Bid To Buy His Beat Firm

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Report by Financial Times says apple is set to make its largest ever acquisition with a huge bid being lined up for Dr Dre’s Beat Electronics which could make the beat maker the first hip hop billionaire. The deal in the region of $3.2bn (£1.9bn), could be announced next week.

The firm founded by rapper and music producer Dr Dre and fellow music producer Jimmy Iovine in 2008, produces ‘Beats by Dr Dre’ headphones and also runs a music streaming service.

Beats Electronics received $500m (£295m) investment from Carlyle Group last September, valuing the company at more than $1bn. It has been report that Apple is contemplating a Spotify-like on-demand music service.

Apple is sitting on a $133bn (£78bn) cash pile, and chief executive Tim Cook has said the firm has “no problem” with spending large sums of money to acquire top companies.

Apple and Beats have not commented on the reports. However in a video posted by singer Tyrese Gibson Dr Dre boasts that he is “the first billionaire in hip hop”.

He then laughs as Gibson says: “Billionaire boys club for real, homie. The Forbes list just changed.”

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