HTC wants a piece of Beats by Dr Dre

Taiwanese smartphone giant HTC plans to pay about $309 million for a 51 percent stake in Beats Electronics, the celebrity-centric marketing operation for higher-end headphones, fronted by hip hop artist and producer Dr Dre.

According to HTC, the company is working with Beats Electronics LLC to create a line of HTC headsets offering “high performance sound” to be available this fall, a company statement said. Manufacturing for Beat’s headphones is done by Monster with lines including Beats by Dr Dre and Heartbeats with Lady Gaga.

Beats, the brainchild of Dr. Dre and chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records Jimmy Iovine, will continue to operate autonomously with Iovine as chairman, the statement said.

“We believe our strategic partnership will provide customers with unbeatable sound on HTC phones,” said HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou.

– AFP