The author of the bestseller "Steve Jobs," Walter Isaacson, "believes the Apple-Beats deal is more about video," reports The Hollywood Reporter.
THR continues, "With Apple reportedly about to acquire [Jimmy] Iovine and Dr. Dre’s Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion, speculation about the pair taking senior roles at the company have run rampant."
The Reporter article is based upon an interview Isaacson did with a sibling publication of THR, Billboard.
According to THR, Isaacson "goes on to say, since Steve Jobs’ death three years ago, the company has 'grown risk averse [and] its growth has stalled,' [adding] 'Tim Cook [Apple's CEO] … is a smart number cruncher, but he’s no Jobs.' Isaacson compares Iovine with Jobs, and finds the two have a lot in common. '[Their] success came not from family pedigree or an Ivy League school but from talent and chutzpah.'
Iovine is well known as a record producer, former record label executive, and former mentor on "American Idol."
Adds the THR article, "Isaacson believes the Apple-Beats deal is more about video, speculating that Cook wants Iovine to run Apple’s content business and help them launch the TV product analysts have been touting for years. Isaacson suggests that Iovine has the 'charisma and connections' to round up the networks the way he did the music labels back in 2002 [for Apple's iTunes service]. 'His track record of success in marrying content and tech gives that theory some weight.'"
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