After Apple announced its purchase of Beats Electronics and Beats Music on Wednesday, iTunes chief Eddy Cue and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine have been scheduled to talk at Re/code's Code Conference later today.
Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine will debut as an Apple employee at #codecon tonight. @AppleInsider will have full coverage of the interview.
— Tip AppleInsider (@TipAppleInsider) May 28, 2014
Following Apple's bombshell Beats announcement, Re/code reported that it has replaced Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi with Beats co-founder Iovine in a Code Conference panel that will also feature Cue. The original plan included only Cue and Federighi.
As of this writing, it is unclear if Federighi has been bumped or will show up in a later interview.
At $3 billion, Apple's Beats buy is the most expensive in company history and has raised more than a few eyebrows. In question is why Apple, which has the resources necessary to roll out a subscription music service and hardware comparable to Beats' products, would spend the money to acquire what is essentially a brand.
Some have floated the idea that Apple is after Iovine and Dr. Dre, who will take positions at Cupertino in the near future. Iovine, for example, will be working full-time under Cue, though his exact role has not yet been fleshed out.
It is unknown what questions Re/code's Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher will ask of the iTunes head, but AppleInsider will be providing full coverage of the event that kicks off at 8 p.m. Pacific.
9 Comments
I don't like Federighi being bumped like that. Iovine is not a coder/software guy. The more face time Craig gets for Apple the better.
Where's the coverage? It started over an hour ago.
[quote name="alcstarheel" url="/t/180182/apples-eddy-cue-to-join-beats-jimmy-iovine-on-stage-at-code-conference-panel#post_2541279"]I don't like Federighi being bumped like that. Iovine is not a coder/software guy. The more face time Craig gets for Apple the better.[/quote] Yeah pretty sad that Federighi gets bumped by Jimmy Iovine. Though I suspect Apple planned everything this way so all the questions tonight will be about the acquisition and not about what's coming on Monday (which neither Cue nor Federighi would have commented on anyway).
8pm eastern would be 5pm pacific.
This. I don't feel bad for Federighi at all - I doubt Apple told him at the last minute. He was probably aware of this all along. Besides, Craig gets lots of time at WWDC and iPad/iPhone launches.