Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) officially closed the Beats Music and Beats Electronics deal on Friday. The Cupertino-based tech giant even added a welcome page for Beats on its official website. Beats official website also posted something to reflect the acquisition.
Beats now a part of Apple
Earlier this week, the European Commission approved of the acquisition. It appears Apple didn’t face any scrutiny from the United States government either. It was also revealed Vivendi sold its Beats Electronics stake to Apple for $404 million. The music company had about a 13% stake in Beats. Just last May, it was announced Apple would acquire Beats Electronics for about $404 million. The fact Apple paid Vivendi SA (EPA:VIV) (OTCMKTS:VIVHY) a lot might suggest that it’s stake is represented in the stock.
A closer look at the Beats section of Apple’s website includes a note welcoming Beats’ co-founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine to the brand. The note added Beats created great products that music fans can really use to connect deeper to the music.
How Beats can help Apple
The official Beats website told customers Apple has a new instrument. During the early days of digital recording, Macintosh computers were dubbed “the instrument of choice”. Since then, the iPod, Phone, and iPad have become choice instruments. The note also read the company feels fortunate to join Apple and hopes to build better products together.
Apple’s acquistion of Beats means the company now owns the electronics and the music streaming divisions. Over a decade ago, revolutionized the music industry with iTunes and the iPod. Thanks to shifted consumer interest in music streaming from websites like Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) and Spotify, Apple has been in need to find a way to recapture that market.Since Beats has its own music streaming service, it only makes sense the company would want to acquire a music streaming service that was already established. Last year, Apple launched iTunes Radio to compete with Pandora.
