As Apple closes the deal to buy Beats for $3 billion, some 200 jobs are expected to be at risk.
Apple’s acquisition of Beats was announced back in May, but the deal is only just set to be sealed following E.U. regulator approval.
One of the first points for the newly headphone-endowed company to address is what to do with the existing Beats staff roster, which numbers around 700.
According to Bloomberg, some 500 of those will be retained in their current (or similar) positions. The remaining 200 won’t be so lucky.
Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr has put it in a much nice way, claiming that “we have extended job offers to every Beats employee.” The only catch is that “some offers are for a limited period.”
Neumayr says that Apple will “work hard during this time to find as many of these Beats employees as we can another permanent job within Apple,” but anyone who’s ever been laid off will recognise that kind of corporate blow-softening language.
9to5Mac doesn’t carry the precise 200 figure, but it does detail some of the positions that have been jettisoned, claiming that the “support, finance and HR departments” have been “largely dismantled.”
It’s believed that Beats chief creative officer Trent Reznor (yes, THAT Trent Reznor), and Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers will escape the cull.
The $3 billion Beats acquisition is Apple’s biggest ever, giving the tech giant a brand new audio hardware arm as well as a tightly curated music subscription service to bolster its flagging iTunes offering.
Read More: Forget about design – Apple needs to improve Beats audio quality
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
