With Beats, Apple Has Its Next iPod

Apple on Wednesday confirmed it is buying Beats for $3 billion

When acquisition talks between Beats and Apple leaked approximately three weeks ago, users and analysts alike expressed confusion over the pairing

At the Code Conference, Apple's Eddy Cue talked about what attracted Apple to Beats, focusing on talent, hardware and the Beats Music subscription service.

To be clear, those are all great reasons to buy a company. The thing is, historically speaking, Apple isn't like most other technology companies when it comes to acquisitions. Unlike Facebook, Google and Microsoft, Apple doesn't make a habit of spending a few billion dollars on a company or brand. In fact, before Beats, Apple's biggest acquisition was the 1997 purchase of NeXT for $404 million — and that was as much about getting Steve Jobs and a modern desktop operating system as it was anything else. Read more...