Following up news this afternoon that Apple is in serious talks to acquire Beats, the New York Post is reporting that co-founder Jimmy Iovine may soon be joining the company. The Post says Iovine would serve as a ‘special adviser,’ and would report to Tim Cook on ‘creative matters.’
Jimmy Iovine is a record and movie producer, as well as a very successful entrepreneur. He co-founded Interscope Records in the early 90’s, which later became part of the Universal Music Group, and then Beats in 2006, which again is being rumored to soon be bought out by Apple…
Here’s more from The Post’s Claire Atkinson:
Beats Electronics boss and veteran music industry executive Jimmy Iovine is in talks to join Apple as a “special adviser” to Tim Cook on creative matters, two sources close to talks tell The Post. […]
Iovine’s contract with UMG runs until the end of 2014. If Iovine goes to Apple, he’d join the likes of Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry executive who signed on at the Cupertino, Calif., company a month ago to run its retail division.
It’s not clear right now if Iovine joining Apple would be the result of a Beats acquisition, or if he plans on joining regardless. He does have a history with the company though—last year he met with Tim Cook and Eddy Cue, and he worked with Steve Jobs on several projects in the early 2000’s.
This afternoon, the Financial Times reported that Apple is in talks to purchase Beats—both its headphone-making hardware division and recently-launched streaming music service—for as much as $3.2 billion. If it happens, it would be the Cupertino company’s largest acquisition ever.