This is How a Social Media Video Allegedly Cost Dr. Dre $200 Million
Dr. Dre reportedly lost $200 million of his Apple-Beats deal with Jimmy Iovine after proclaiming to be “the first billionaire in Hip Hop."
News about Dr. Dre's Apple and Beats Electronics deal is coming to the light. In a new book from Tripp Mickle, After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul, it's revealed that the rapper, superproducer and entrepreneur lost $200 of his Apple-Beats deal after proclaiming to be “the first billionaire in Hip Hop."
Dre and Jimmy Iovine Beats Electronics partnership was purchased by Apple in 2014, when soon-thereafter Dre leaked the news early. The initial agreement called for $3.2 billion under confidentiality.
“It was a sum that Iovine and Dre could barely fathom,” reads an excerpt of the book via iMore. “As the lawyers worked through final details, Iovine summoned the leadership team of Beats to his home near Beverly Hills. He told everyone that they were on the cusp of finalizing a massive deal. The only thing that could spoil it would be for word of the deal to leak.”
The book also claims that Iovine warned his team, Whatever you do, don’t talk about this,” and even told Dre, “Remember that scene in Goodfellas where Jimmy tells the guys, ‘Don’t buy any furs. Don’t buy any cars. Don’t get showy’? Don’t move.”
The next morning, Diddy allegedly called Iovine, sharing that Tyrese posted a Facebook video where he and Dre were celebrating the Apple-Beats deal, revealing his billionaire status.
“At 2:00 a.m., Iovine got a call from Puff Daddy, who was screaming that Dre and Tyrese, a rapper, were talking about the deal in a Facebook video,” the book reads. “Iovine pulled up the video and cringed as he saw Tyrese bragging about being drunk on Heineken in a recording studio.”
Mickle wrote that Iovine was panicked about the video, but Apple CEO Tim Cook remained calm about the incident, bringing Dre and Iovine to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.
“He invited them into a conference room for a private conversation. Iovine was anxious and afraid that Cook was going to kill the deal. Instead of the anger and cursing that would have poured out of Jobs in a moment like that, Cook exuded calm," the book reads.
“He told the music executives that he was disappointed and wished that Dre’s social media outburst hadn’t happened but said that the video hadn’t shaken his conviction that buying Beats was right for Apple.”
The deal proceeded, but Cook “used the social media fiasco to demand an adjustment to the terms of the deal,” cutting $200 million from the initial offer. Business news also revealed that the deal's price dropped from $3.2 billion to $3 billion, as read in a 2014 Apple press release.