Apple is in negotiations to buy Beats Electronics in a $3.2 billion deal, according to The Financial Times. The Bloomberg terminal just flashed a headline backing up the FT story.
The deal could be announced next week, the report says.
Beats makes a variety of audio products, including a line of pricey but popular headphones. It also recently launched a streaming music service similar to Spotify.
The company was founded by rapper Dr. Dre and record producer Jimmy Iovine.
If the report is true, this would be an odd move for Apple. It never acquires big companies with multibillion dollar valuations. This would easily be Apple's largest acquisition ever.
Apple could make particular use of the Beats Music streaming service as it attempts to figure out the streaming media space. iTunes radio, a streaming radio service similar to Pandora, has been panned by critics for its poor track selection. And iTunes Match, which can scan your music library and then let you stream tracks to your Apple devices over the Internet, isn't as robust as music services like Spotify.
Beats Electronics has had a rocky investment history. HTC once bought a 50.1% stake in the company for $300 million and used the Beats branding and audio technology in its smartphones. But the partnership fizzled out and Beats bought the stake back from HTC for $415 million.
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