European Commission will take a decision on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) -Beats acquisition deal worth $3 billion by the end of next month, according to Reuters. The European watchdog announced on Wednesday that it can give a nod to the deal without any concerns, but will retain the right to run thorough investigation into the agreement to tackle any competitive issue expected to arise from the acquisition.
U.S. regulators also watching
Not just European Commission, but U.S. watchdogs would, also, investigate the aftereffects of the Apple-Beats deal before giving their consent. However, this investigation should hardly create any hurdle for Apple as the music streaming space has only handful of players and Beats Music just holds a small part in the space dominated primarily by the services such as Pandora and Spotify.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has always been obscure about its plans for the future, but came out openly with intentions to acquire Beats for $3 billion. The iPhone maker pins its interest in the music streaming service beats, although the company itself has streaming service in form of iTunes Radio. The acquisition will, also, give Apple an access to Beats music headphone at a time, when the company’s own brands are low on popularity, whereas Beats headphones are riding on success by creating a cult.
Beats Apple, a good alliance
After the acquisition, Beats co-founder Dr.Dre and Jimmy Lovine will join Apple. Tim Cook, Apple CEO, while informing about the likely deal stated that the company is investing in music due to customers love for it and is “bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.”
Apple SVP of internet software and services Eddy Cue thinks the deal would draw benefits for the iPhone maker as users will be able to stream the music with the iTunes Radio to a World class subscription services in Beats along with purchasing music from the iTunes store. Beats Music will grow the Apple music space ahead, but it is not the dominant company in its own right. Although Beats will contribute revenue to Apple through its hardware line, chunk of its success has come from branding and marketing rather than the technical expertise.
