Both Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will take senior positions at Apple as part of the Beats Electronics deal, according to people close to the matter. While neither would move to Cupertino, they would reportedly commute to Silicon Valley (or wherever is needed) from Los Angeles. Although it’s currently unknown what role Iovine and Dre would fulfill at Apple, it is thought that Iovine might become a “special adviser” to Tim Cook on creative projects. Dre was recently seen celebrating becoming “the first billionaire in hip-hop.”
Music mogul Jimmy Iovine gravitates to the limelight in a way that previously might have made him ill-suited to work at Apple Inc., AAPL -0.42% which historically had one face:Steve Jobs. But as Apple completes a deal to buy headphone and streaming-service company Beats Electronics LLC from Mr. Iovine and his co-founder, rap star Dr. Dre, both men are likely to take senior positions with the Cupertino, Calif., tech company, according to people familiar with the matter, commuting from the Los Angeles area to Silicon Valley—or meetings elsewhere—as needed. Though the details of the men’s potential Apple assignments remain unclear, the mere possibility underscores how Apple’s corporate culture has loosened under the leadership of Mr. Jobs’s successor, Chief Executive Tim Cook.
