According to the New York Times’ “Media Decoder” blog and The Hollywood Reporter, Dr. Dre’s Beats Electronics is in the final stages of negotiating a purchase of MOG online music service. While the purchase price to acquire MOG has not been made public, Beats Electronics already holds a significant share in the personal electronics industry. Previous reports have listed Beats Electronics annual revenue at $500 million, and in August of 2011 Beats struck a $300 million partnership with Taiwanese corporation HTC. This would add to previous partnerships with Chrysler and HP.
In line with Beats advertised claims to offer a superior audio experience, MOG streams at a higher bitrate (320 kilobits per second), than competitors such as GrooveShark and Spotify. In theory, this would support claims to offer a higher quality of streaming music.
Ross Rubin of marketing research firm NPD speculated that such a move “would close the loop in terms of a vertically integrated offering. The playback device, the service and the listening device could all be optimized for Beats.”
Monday, HTC issued a statement denying a report by Business Insider that HTC was in talks to purchase MOG. At press time, neither MOG nor Beats Electronics could be reached for comment on the potential deal.