Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s lucrative Beats Electronics deal was nearly scratched after Dre leaked the news early.
In New York Times reporter Tripp Mickle’s new book, “After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul,” the deal is broken down. Apple purchased the company, but Dre nearly sabotaged the famous business move when he dropped a video on social media proclaiming he was “the first billionaire in Hip Hop.”
It was Diddy who ultimately broke the news to Iovine that singer Tyrese had shared a drunken video of him and Dre on camera boasting about his new billionaire status. Iovine viewed the footage and “cringed” at the sight of the visibly tipsy men spilling the classified tea.
According to Mickle, news of the video reached Apple CEO Tim Cook, and he summoned Iovine and Dre to discuss the next steps. Though calm in demeanor, Cook expressed his disappointment with the men and explained that he wished Dre’s public outburst had not occurred. Luckily, Cook was not upset enough to call off the entire deal.
Cook quietly used the moment as a grounds to deduct $200 million from the offer. Original reports from that time show that the purchase price had been switched from $3.2 billion to $3 billion, though it was suggested that Beats Music’s low subscriber count was the real culprit.
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