It's official! Beats buys back HTC's stake in the company

Last month, there was some speculation that Beats Electronics was going to buy back the 25% stake in the company held by Taiwan manufacturer HTC. On Friday, that speculation became fact as HTC's 25% stake in Beats Electronics was sold back to the company for $265 million. The Taiwan based manufacturer had originally owned 50.1% of the company, a purchase made at the top of the market in 2011. A year later, Beats founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre had purchased half of HTC's majority ownership back.

HTC has fallen on hard times despite the success of its most recent flagship model, the Android powered HTC One. Beats has gone from strength to strength and has moved beyond headphones and earphones to car audio and is supposedly working on a streaming online music service.

HTC says that Beats remains an important partner and the company still uses the Beats Audio sound system on its handsets. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

source: NASDAQ via AndroidCentral