Apple axing 200 Beats employees

Apple has confirmed that it will gradually lay off 200 Beats employees, or nearly 29% of the 700 people currently working for the headphones company.

After months of speculation, Apple announced in May that it was acquiring the company co-owned by rapper Dr. Dre for $3 billion. Soon after, rumours of lay-offs flooded the internet.

While 700 Beats employees will begin working at Apple after the deal closes, only 500 of them will keep their jobs longer than a few months, according to told the Wall Street Journal.

“We’re excited to have the Beats team join Apple, and we have extended job offers to every Beats employee,” the statement read. “Because of some overlap in our operations, some offers are for a limited period and we’ll work hard during this time to find as many of these Beats employees as we can another permanent job within Apple.”

According to rumours, most of the job cuts will stem from Beats’ human resources, finance and support teams, since many of those roles can be filled by current Apple employees.