HTC buys stake in Beats

THE RICH GET RICHER: Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s Beats Electronics will sell a 51% stake of the company to Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC for $300 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. Interscope also has a stake in the company, which sells branded high-end headphones manufactured by Monster. "As the primary consumption of media moves to the smartphone, we have an opportunity to create a premium experience on that device," Beats President Luke Wood, a former senior Interscope A&R executive, told the paper’s Ethan Smith in an interview. "When Jimmy and Dre started this, they had a very specific vision of what Beats would be. It wasn't about headphones, it was about fixing the degradation of sound." Iovine and Dre will continue to oversee Beats Electronics together with the rest of the company's current management team. The deal is expected to close later this year. (8/11a)