As Apple’s acquisition of Beats nears completion, the transition phase begins
by Brent Dirks
July 30, 2014
With Apple’s acquisition of Beats Electronics coming closer to completion, the transition phase has officially begun. And 9to5Mac has more information on some of what is happening behind the scenes.
According to the site, a group of executives visited Beats headquarters in the Los Angeles area to offer a number of development and creative employees positions at Apple.
Other employees have been told their positions will be eliminated:
Beats’ support, finance and HR departments are said to have already been largely dismantled, with some workers being laid off in the past few weeks, a few offered definite positions in Cupertino, and others being offered positions until the end of January 2015. Apple is said to have this week set up a dedicated phone hotline for Beats employees to speak with Apple Human Resources staff about severance packages or transition plans.On the technology side, Apple has already begun bringing the Beats Music technology into the iTunes infrastructure. But that could take some time, according to the site’s sources, as it is not particularly compatible with Apple’s own servers. That means at least parts of the service will need to be rebuilt soon. After a few weeks of speculation, Apple officially announced the $3 billion purchase of Beats in late May. For other news today, see: Apple is likely to release a new Mac mini and 27-inch iMac, Modbook’s new Kickstarter project wants to create a MacBook Pro-based Retina tablet, and Square readies a new EMV credit card reader for iOS devices.