Beats Electronics, the company behind the uber popular Beats By Dr. Dre headphones is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against a former business associate. Beats rival Monster, which also help design the original Beats headphones has filed suit against the company with its CEO Noel Lee claiming, he and Monster created the technology behind Beats By Dr. Dre. In the lawsuit, Monster and Lee allege Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine acted fraudulently by stealing the headphones from Lee and Monster while keeping quiet on Lee’s part in the engineering and designing of the successful headphones. USA Today is reporting Lee charges both Dre and Iovine were schooled by him on how the manufacturing, distribution, engineering and selling of the products Monster and Lee made.
Lee also claims once Beats kicked Monster to the curb, they lost millions of dollars in investments while Beats went on to be snapped up by Apple for a cool $3 billion. Lee claims if he still had the 5% in his original interest in Beats when the deal with made with Apple, his stake in the company would’ve been worth over $100 million. You can get a whole lot of headphones with those coins. Before Beats and Monster’s manufacturing 5-year deal was over, HTC forked over $300 million investing in Beats in 2011. Just before Apple purchased Beats, Dre and Iovine bought the entire company back in 2013. According to Lee’s suit, the transaction was a farce that Beats committed in order steal the headphones from Monster. Monster and Lee are seeking punitive damages. So far, Dre, Iovine and Beats have yet to comment about their legal battle.
Drop The Beats: Dr. Dre & Jimmy Iovine Accused of Fraud In New Lawsuit was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
