The partnership between HTC and Beats Electronics is no more. The Taiwanese company today announced that it had sold its remaining 24.84% stake in the audio company back to Beats Electronics for US$265 million.
HTC aquired a 50.1% stake in Beats Electronics back in 2011 for US$300 million. It later sold half that stake back to company founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre (also known as Andre Young) for about US$150 million.
Reports surfaced in August that Beats Electronics wanted to sever its relationship with HTC in a bid to find a new partner to expand its reach to new products including speakers, car audio systems and even a music streaming service.
It’s likely that neither company saw any real benefit from the original deal. HTC’s fortunes have been on the decline and the Beats Audio branding appears to have done little to help sales. Now both are free to pursue other avenues separately.
Will you miss Beats Audio on your future HTC devices? Let us know below.
Update: That did not take long! Beats Electronics has received US$500 million from the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, in exchange for a minority investment and two of six seats on the Beats board of directors.