AppleInsider Staff
The ongoing legal tussle between Monster and Beats —  over the way in which Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre assumed control of the company in the run-up to its acquisition by Apple —  has focused the spotlight on the many ways the two music moguls worked with Apple and late cofounder Steve Jobs over the years.
Monster Chief Executive Noel Lee has latched on to the ties between Iovine, Dre, and Jobs while making the case that he should have received a portion of Apple's $3 billion, Bloomberg notes. Lee and his legal team argue that Iovine and Dre had long planned to sell to Apple, and that the partial sale of Beats to HTC and the eventual acquisition of HTC's stake by the Carlyle Group was an elaborate, years-long effort to force Lee and Monster out.
Iovine and Jobs were longtime friends, and Jobs reportedly praised Iovine's ability to create a successful hardware business after a lifetime of making music. According to Iovine, Jobs even used Beats headphones with his iPod.
The two had also had numerous discussions about a streaming service, with Iovine pushing Jobs to alter the iTunes model as far back as 2004.
"I've been meeting with Apple about subscriptions since 2004," Iovine said last March. "Every two months. I think they're an incredible company, and I wanted them to do subscriptions."
The trail between Apple and Dr. Dre, one of the most popular rap artists in history, is a bit more underground. Dre's songs have been available on the iTunes store since its inception, and he and Iovine briefly flirted with rolling out a "Beats Phone."
In fact, Dre actually appeared via iChat during Apple's unveiling of iTunes for Windows in 2003 — Â just moments after U2 frontman Bono ended his own appearance with "God bless you Jimmy Iovine, Universal."
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8 Comments
I'm so sick of companies trying to make a case against Apple using Steve Jobs. I understand they may be trying to present the strongest case possible but it really just rubs me the the wrong way. He's no longer with us to elaborate on the evidence or speculation for himself. And I'm sure it's not a good feeling for his family and friends.
Monster, you blew it. Jobs was friends with a lot of people. That doesn't mean he wants to buy everyone. In addition beats had a deal with HP for use of its design/logos/etc. if anything, HP probably would have been a more obvious suited.
I still don't get how Apple is going to make a cent on the Beats deal? Nor am I impressed by Iovine's spiel at WWDC. He is certainly no spokesman!
I still don't get how Apple is going to make a cent on the Beats deal? Nor am I impressed by Iovine's spiel at WWDC. He is certainly no spokesman!
Apple got themselves a pair of mojos. With Tim Cook and Eddy Cue doing all the saving right now: #WWDC, #BeatsPill & #TaylorSwift.
Yeah if Lee plans to use this strategy in this case he better think twice. Saying Lovine and Dre set up the elebrate business deal and ruze to get Monster out of the deal is not going to go over well unless he can find documents to back this up. Plus the only reason to cut Lee out is so those two make more, but didn't HTC have 50.1% ownership in the deal to get Monster 10% out. Yeah they sound like a smart thing to do then Lovine and Dre had to convince HTC to sell back out years later. In the end Lovine and DRE split it wirh a third company who has 25% owner ship it would have been better to keep Monster in at 10%. Yeah Lovine and Dre are two real smart men they took less so Lee go nothing. I love the logic.