Beats By Dre Secures $500 Million Dollar Investment

Beats Electronics, home to the wildly popular Beats By Dre headphones and other myriad products, secured a $500 million investment from the Carlyle Group.

Beats, founded by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine and home to products by Lil Wayne and Lady Gaga, received the minority investment to help finance growth, reports The New York Times.

Beats is now valued at more than $1 billion, with Carlyle taking two of six seats on Beats’ board.

Additionally, Beats will buy back the 25 percent stake in itself held by Taiwanese smartphone company HTC for $265 million. Beats also paid off a $150 million note held by HTC.

In addition to headphones, Beats electronics also has speakers and sound systems for Hewlett-Packard and HTC phones in its portfolio.

In 2012, Beats purchased online music streaming service Mog for more than $14 million.

“These transactions represent the evolution of the financial strength and significant growth prospects of Beats,” said Iovine in a statement.

“Carlyle is a fantastic investment partner and we look forward to building the next chapter of Beats,” he added.

360nobs