Okay, I'm ready to stick my neck out here. £100 says Apple is not buying Beats.
Edit: Some proof of reputation: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=J9u6KyMk
Reply to this post to confirm within 24 hours, assuming Apple does not announce anything officially beforehand. Elsewhere in the thread you state there will be no deal, so I will count deals that result in Apple controlling or owning a significant portion of Beat's business as a win for me. We can figure out the payment later.
I'm betting that a deal is actually going to happen, not that lawyers will move quickly.
I'll bet that an Apple spokesperson or apple.com will confirm the deal before or on June 13, 2014, GMT.
"Apple Inc. AAPL +1.24% is preparing to bolster its streaming-music business with a proposed $3.2 billion deal to acquire Beats Electronics LLC, the high-end headphone maker that recently launched the Beats Music subscription service, according to people familiar with the matter."
That's unequivocal - and has a specific price tag, $3.2 Billion, and the LLC that is being acquired.
Would love to see this all be a misunderstanding though - I give it low (but not impossible) probability.
A deal is not done until both sides have signed. Prematurely going public has ruined many a deal, and in the Jobs days the other side announcing a deal first would have completely torpedoed anything. Apple has said nothing on this at all, and it's been almost a week.
It seems extremely unlikely that this is real, given the way that it was announced. It just smells completely fishy.
Most likely Beats thought they could get a better price by going public too early, and didn't think that Cook would cancel the deal because of it. That or they're just complete fucking idiots. Don't talk about deals until they're done, unless you know exactly what you're doing, because it's a tight rope to walk.