The break-up is official: HTC's partnership with Beats Electronics has come to an end.
The announcement came in this morning that Beats will by back the 25-percent share that HTC owns in the headphone company for $265 million, a huge sum for HTC. The company had originally purchased a 50.1-percent share in Beats for $300 million back in 2011, but had to sell half of that when they hit hard times just a year later. We don't know why HTC decided to sell its remaining shares, but it more than likely arose from pressure Beats had placed on them. Beats has been steadily gaining more ground thanks to its massively popular headphones, and have recently started to branch out into car-audio systems and an upcoming online radio service called Daisy. This essentially is a case of outgrowing your partner: in 2011, HTC was the juggernaut between the two companies, but it appears that Beats has grown to a point that HTC's partnership doesn't make sense anymore.
HTC did mention that they would "continue to partner [with Beats] as future opportunities arise," but we wouldn't hold our breath. Beats is already said to be looking for another investor, and rumors point to Carlyle Group LP investing $500 million for a minority stake.
[via CNET]
