- Jan 5, 2011
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According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Beats by Dr. Dre Company may be planning to dump HTC. If you remember way back in 2011, HTC actually actually bought a 50.1% stake in the company. Then in 2012, when things started really going downhill for HTC, Beats by Dre purchased 25% of the company back from HTC. As it turns out, as bad as things have been going for HTC, the opposite has been true for Beats by Dre. They have grown their business from $200 Million in revenue in 2010 to $1 Billion in 2012. Beats by Dre now holds about 59% of the US premium headphone market.
It looks like Beats by Dre now wants to find a better partner, one that matches its success. To do that, they would have to purchase back their 25% stake at quite a bit more than the original $150 Million it was previously valued at. Still, it is something they can likely afford, and the cash would likely be more valuable to HTC right now than the partnership.
For now this is just "insider intel," but it will be interesting to see how this drama unfolds. The question remains, "Was this partnership ever worthwhile for either company from the get go?"
Source: AndroidPolice
