I don’t think anyone is arguing Apple bought them for the revenue. Apple is making enough money, they really don’t need this tiny revenue stream.
However, if they really only want part of Beats, they still have to buy the whole company, revenue and all. They have to pay for it.
This is less of a problem than it seems, though. One plausible scenario is that Apple just keeps the hardware part of Beats separate and making money, while getting all the rest of the people working for Beats on board.
This is a large acquisition, but it’s not super huge and mostly so big because Beats successfully makes and sells hardware. If they keep that part separate and independent of Apple in the future this might actually turn out to be a tiny acquisition, more in line with Apple’s past music acquisitions. Think Lala: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lala_(website)
However, if they really only want part of Beats, they still have to buy the whole company, revenue and all. They have to pay for it.
This is less of a problem than it seems, though. One plausible scenario is that Apple just keeps the hardware part of Beats separate and making money, while getting all the rest of the people working for Beats on board.
This is a large acquisition, but it’s not super huge and mostly so big because Beats successfully makes and sells hardware. If they keep that part separate and independent of Apple in the future this might actually turn out to be a tiny acquisition, more in line with Apple’s past music acquisitions. Think Lala: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lala_(website)