IB on Beats-MOG

ANOTHER IRON IN THE FIRE FOR IOVINE: What role might Jimmy Iovine be playing in Beats Audio’s pursuit of MOG? If Beats succeeds, it would give MOG a big leg up in the competition among subscription services. So says I.B. Bad in his latest column, posting Friday morning. The N.Y. Post this morning confirmed the targeting of MOG by Beats and HTC, which acquired a 51% stake in Beats for $300 million last year. HTC already sells handsets that come paired with Beats headphones and would be able to plug MOG’s service directly into its phones, a source with knowledge of the deal told the Post. “You can envision deep integration between HTC and MOG,” the source said. The move also signals that MOG could eventually become a Beats-branded music service. (3/21a)