How did you arrive at the 15% margin figure?

JumpCrisscross · on May 28, 2014

($3 billion purchase price [1] / 14.9x AAPL P/E ratio [2]) / $1.3 billion 2013 Beats headphone sales [3].

We are asking how much in earnings (E) would Beats need to earn to give a $3 billion price (P) no more than a 14.9x P/E ratio. We then turn those minimum earnings E and turn them into a quick-and-dirty margin by dividing E by sales.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/technology/apple-confirms-...

[2] https://www.google.com/finance?q=aapl&ei=_0qGU5C_BabzsgeenYH...

[3] http://nypost.com/2014/05/27/apple-cuts-purchase-price-of-be...