Monster is suing Beats Audio for allegedly conspiring to dupe Monster out of a deal with Beats before the company was sold to Apple for $3.2 billion last year. Beats founders and current Apple employees Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre, and Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC are also defendants in the case.
In a complaint filed in Superior Court in San Mateo County, Calif., Monster said Beats “fraudulently acquired” the Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones through a “sham transaction” with HTC, which agreed to purchase a 51% stake in Beats for $300 million in 2011. According to the complaint, Monster claims that the Beats co-founders Iovine and Dre deliberately hid Monster’s involvement in designing and engineering its headphones, as well as the education the company provided for engineering, manufacturing, distribution and the actual sale of the headphones.
Monster said it developed, manufactured and distributed the headphones in exchange for the licensing rights to the Beats brand and celebrity marketing by Iovine and Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young.
