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Short version: Jimmy takes the place of Steve Jobs as the public face of the company.

IS JIMMY IOVINE LEAVING UMG
FOR APPLE?

Speculation Has Legendary Exec Possibly Leaving UMG for Tech Giant in Beats Deal

Why is Apple shelling out $3.2 billion for Beats? They want Jimmy Iovine.

Beats insiders believe the Beats head and IGA chief will be leaving his longtime UMG home—where he’s still under contract—for a fulltime post at the tech giant. Given that Apple is ponying up $3.2 billion for the company, why wouldn’t it get that company’s chief executive on an exclusive basis?

Apple’s return to cultural dominance lies with Iovine, Dr. Dre and their team. This includes affiliated musician/execs like Trent Reznor and Beats endorsers like Eminem, just for starters. But Iovine’s posse includes music superstars from Bruce to Bono. This coterie’s presence as the face of Apple’s new gear and services is a shortcut to bringing sexy back.

Short version: Jimmy takes the place of Steve Jobs as the public face of the company.

CEO Tim Cook knows he isn’t Jobs, and when he steps up onstage at the Worldwide Developers Conference to introduce a new gizmo, he always suffers in comparison to the company’s charismatic "think different" visionary. So how do you get that rock-star vibe again? You bring in rock stars.

That "wow factor" is going to be integral to regaining the lead in personal electronics and vital to the migration to "lifestyle" gear, which is where the company is headed.

Most of the speculation we’ve seen about the deal is based on technology that already exists—such as Beats by Dre headphones and the Beats Music streaming service. While these things factor into the near-term economics, most insiders believe that the primary reason for Apple’s biggest acquisition yet is products and applications that are still to come.

If, as has been suggested by tech geeks who understand this stuff way better than we do, Apple’s future is in wearable computers—including earpieces, watches and other devices that take mobile interactivity from the phone to lifestyle apparel—it makes plenty of sense for the company to invest in technology that people are already wearing.

Music has of course been essential to Apple’s gigantic growth over the last decade, and Beats’ Iovine was there for the dawn of the iPod and the iTunes delivery system. As he’s famously remarked, he loved the delivery system but not the earbuds—and began working with Dr. Dre on making better-sounding headphones and speakers.

No matter how far afield Apple’s Beats-branded devices of the future may go, count on music being front and center not only in their function but in their marketing. Which means that, despite what many of the naysayers are suggesting, Apple may once again be pointing the way ahead for the biz as a whole—with Jimmy Iovine and his posse as its new but very familiar face.

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