Rapper Dr Dre and record producer Jimmy Iovine are being accused of being scam artists in a lawsuit that alleges they duped one of their former partners in Beats Electronics LLC before selling the headphone maker to Apple Inc for US$3 billion last year.
The complaint filed on Tuesday in California’s San Mateo Superior Court accuses Dre and Iovine of double-crossing Noel Lee (李美聖), the founder of video and audio cable maker Monster LLC.
Lee once held a 5 percent stake in Beats as part of a partnership between the headphone maker and Monster that ended in 2012. The lawsuit alleges Dre and Iovine orchestrated a “sham” deal with smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) in 2011 that led to the termination of the Monster alliance.
The suit alleges the maneuvering prompted Lee to pare his stake in Beats to 1.25 percent before selling his remaining holdings for US$5.5 million in the autumn of 2013 after being assured by Beats executives that there were no plans to sell the company for at least several years.
Beats announced its sale to Apple in May last year, opening the door for Dre and Iovine to become executives at the iPhone and iPad maker. Had he held on to his 1.25 percent stake, Lee would have received more than US$30 million in the Apple deal. His original 5 percent stake would have been worth roughly $150 million.
Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, and Iovine, a recording industry executive, reaped the biggest jackpots in the Apple deal, though the precise size of their windfalls has not been disclosed.
Lee’s lawsuit says Dre and Iovine each owned 15 percent stakes in the early stages of the Beats partnership.
Apple, which now employs Dre and Iovine, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Apple is not named in the complaint. The lawsuit also targets HTC America Holding Ltd, and Beats investor and board member Paul Wachter.
This is not the first time that a former Beats partner has taken Dre and Iovine to court. David Hyman, who sold his music streaming service MOG to Beats in 2012, is suing the two men for bad faith. That action, filed shortly before the Apple deal was sealed, is unfolding in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”