Apple officially has purchased audio equipment and service company Beats for $3.2 billion. As part of the deal, streaming service Beats Music would also join the company's iTunes division. Both services were competitors until now, but it would be interesting to see if Apple is going to merge them together.

The piece of news comes hours after initial reports surfaced that the deal would happen in the coming days.

The deal is confirmed by one of the founders of the company Dr. Dre and actor Tyrese Gibson, who announced the news on actor's Instagram page. By far, this is Apple's largest acquisition recently and the company is hoping it will help its iTunes service regain ground.

According to a report by Nielsen SoundScan album and individual track sales were down 13% and 11%, respectively, so there's certainly room for improvement.

Interestingly, the deal makes rapper Dr. Dre the first billionaire hip-hop artist.

Source | Via