Last year Apple acquired Beats, the company known for their audio products and more recently their music streaming service in the form of Beats Music. However prior to the acquisition, Beats and Monster were working together and it was only in 2012 that both companies decided to go their separate ways.
Well it looks like Monster isn’t too pleased by the way things had turned out and the company has recently filed a lawsuit against Beats, claiming that Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre had allegedly stolen the Beats by Dr. Dre headphone lineup from Monster in what they are calling a “sham” sale to HTC.
Some of you might recall that for a while, HTC had bought a stake in Beats which saw the introduction of Beats’ audio technology in their handsets. However Monster claims that through some clever maneuvering, Iovine and Dre sold 51% of the company to HTC, before buying back 25%, thus giving them the right to exercise a change of ownership clause in their deal with Monster which ultimately led to severe ties with the company.
Unsurprisingly this meant that Monster had pretty much gained nothing when Apple had acquired the company last year. Assuming Monster did hold onto their share of 5%, it would be worth about $100 million now, which is why Monster and their CEO Noel Lee are suing for punitive damages.