The phone maker HTC and its Beats Audio division (think Dr. Dre headphones) are close to wrapping up a deal to acquire the troubled music subscription service MOG.
A music tech industry source close to the situation says the parties have agreed on a price in the $17 million range, and are now working out the final details of the sale.
HTC released a short-and-to-the-point denial statement today,monster beats, reading: "Rumors and speculation of an acquisition of MOG by HTC are untrue." (Yes, but is Beats Audio buying MOG?) Beats Audio didn't respond to a request for comment.
The deal makes complete sense to both Beats Audio and MOG. Beats has aspirations of offering an online music service, but lacks the expertise and battle-hardened digital music tech to build such a service. MOG has those things. With MOG under...
