Apple Reportedly In Talks To Buy Beats By Dre For $3.2 Billion

The iPhone maker might be close to its first major acquisition, according to the Financial Times.

Robert Galbraith / Reuters / Reuters

In what would be one of Apple's largest acquisitions ever, the company is considering buying the music streaming and hardware company Beats By Dre for $3.2 billion, according to a report in The Financial Times.

The deal could be announced as soon as next week, though the talks could fall apart as is the case with many acquisitions, the FT said. Beats most recently launched a cross-platform music streaming service and has benefitted from a strong public push by Dr. Dre.

What Apple would get is essentially a hardware and streaming company centered around music that has established a prominent brand — which, for Apple, makes enough sense given that it is also at its core a hardware company that keeps music close to its heart. Parts of Beats seem like a natural product fit for Apple, which has tried to build its own music streaming service with iTunes Radio. Apple also sells its own headphones with the iPhones it sells, the EarPods, and has been reportedly experimenting with other wearable technology.

But the bigger surprise is the price that's being floated by the FT. Under Steve Jobs, Apple was not keen on paying huge sums for acquisitions and sought to essentially build its own hardware and technology instead of acquiring it like many other technology companies, including Google and Facebook. But CEO Tim Cook still hasn't put his stamp on the company yet with a category-defining product.

While Beats probably wouldn't be that, it would be an experimental step for the company that is looking for ways to re-ignite the growth it saw after it launched the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

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