Buy a company with an amazing consumer product and brand loyalty and then chop it up and kill the name that's synonymous with "Quality" (it's in " " cause anyone that's a self proclaimed audiophile knows better, posers and regular consumers will swear by their shiny Beats cans...). I get they got some engineers and Dr. Dre but is that really worth $3B?? Personally I would have tapped a company with some real audio engineering chops like Creative, sure they haven't been relative in a while but I'm sure they have some IP that would be useful. Sure Dre is awesome amazing at producing and things music but I feel like his focus in music is to narrow to justify the cost. Maybe someone who's worked in all genres. Mind you most music is just deep bass drops and a repeating hooks. I just for the life of me can't see (technically) or 'hear' anything in a pair Beats that I couldn't get out of a pair of Senheissers or Audio Technicas. Sure they look good and bass is pumped up, but why do you want to listen to sloppy bass?
Then again we're talking about Apple a company that's more about image than cutting edge tech. Beats are the Apple of headphones, pretty to look at, work well enough, hefty "cool" tax but technically mediocre to major competitors. Apple keep the Name! Your audio hardware sucks! If you put out a set of cans with the Apple logo that's the fastest way to alienate a vast majority of Beats consumers, not everyone wants to carry around Apple products.
