Dr Dre's crew gets Beats-down from Apple: 200 jobs to go – report

Apple is planning to axe around 200 people from its new acquisition Beats Electronics, according to reports. Both Bloomberg and 9to5 Mac had folks whispering in their ears that the fruity firm would be making the job cuts now that its $3bn slurp of the headphones and music streaming biz was well underway. The deal was …

[keithpeter]

200 'mostly in' HR?

They must have thousands, high thousands of employees for that number of HR. As the products *were* designed by an outside agency and manufactured in China, what did they all *do*?

[AceRimmer]

Re: 200 'mostly in' HR?

Once HR departments reach a critical mass they become self sufficient in terms of work generation

[d3rrial]

Re: 200 'mostly in' HR?

@AceRimmer

YMMD. Thank you!

[asdf]

Re: 200 'mostly in' HR?

>Once HR departments reach a critical mass they become self sufficient in terms of work generation

If only the were truly self sufficient and didn't make shit tons of work for everyone else having to document why they deserve a job.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 200 'mostly in' HR?

I don't know if we are reading the same article but the version I read said the employees would be ditched from:

"HR, finance and other areas where there’s overlap between the two firms."

So it's not 200 'mostly in' HR, it's 200 redundant employees covering all sides of the business, sides that Apple already has covered by its existing workforce.

[MrRtd]

Re: 200 'mostly in' HR?

"the layoffs will happen in HR, finance and other areas where there’s overlap between the two firms."

[James 51]

Bah, imagine actually employing HR staff. Should have been outsourced already or used uni placement students for 80% of HR staff. Those strategies have worked so well in firms I've worked for before.

[Mage]

Probably nearly all of Beats' staff. It's only a reseller and marketing company.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a music streaming service too. Which is the bit Apple wanted.

[Truth4u]

it aint worth $3 billion for the employees

Are employees really worth anything to anybody these days? If only work would just do itself the board could reach their goal of 0 workforce.

[Tom 7]

Re: it aint worth $3 billion for the employees

AInt got golf and backslapping robots yet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: it aint worth $3 billion for the employees

Employees who do generic functions are typically the ones to go. The upside being their skills are easily transferable.

[samlebon2306]

After gobbling a big meal and getting fat, the corporate dinosaur has to shed some useless weight. Shareholder always take care of their monstrous pet and make sure it's fit.

[Eradicate all BB entrants]

We bought a successful company .......

........ and immediately decided to dump 200 office staff. At no point did we consider if the back office functions they provided created the base for the company to be successful.

[Anonymous Coward]

I sort of assumed that the only things they would keep are the brand and the manufacturing contracts.

[adnim]

Megacorp: "I want

IP, employees are a liability"...Unless the employees are the IP.

You have but one soul. If you can sell it, then it ain't so unique. Or you don't understand what a soul is, if indeed there is such a thing. For the purpose of this exercise let's dispense with the word soul and instead use the word integrity.

Dr Dre would sell is ass if the price was right.

[Harry the Bastard]

"HR, finance will bear the brunt of cuts, it is rumoured"

good, parasitic scum of the corporate world, nuke 'em 'til they glow then shoot 'em in the dark

[Anonymous Coward]

I just love the fact that it's:

A: Useless cunts in HR & Finance getting the boot

and

B: They're getting the boot by Apple.How's that iPhone feel in your hands now, eh?

[Valerion]

We don't have HR

In a company of about 600 people we have no HR department, and not even a single HR person.

Payroll is managed by finance. Hiring is managed by the department that actually needs the staff. Grievances are dealt with by managers/directors. Anyone is free to go and see the CEO about anything if they want to.

Every now and then at a company-wide meeting a newish employee will ask if we can have an HR department. The response from the top is always the same: "If we could come up with a reason why we'd be better off with an HR department, we'd have one."

End result is I work for a company where everyone is happy!