Thursday, January 10, 2013

Beats Electronics Steals Topspin's Ian Rogers For New Music Service

Santa Monica-based Beats Electronics, the headphone and audio equipment maker co-founded by Dr. Dre and Interscope Geffen's Jimmy Iovine, has snagged high profile CEO Ian Rogers away from Topspin Media. Beats said today that it has named Ian Rogers as CEO of a new music service it calls project "Daisy". Daisy is based on MOG, the streaming music services that Beats acquired last year. Beats said that Rogers will head up Daisy as it sets to launch in late 2013, as a stand alone company. Rogers was also formerly GM of Yahoo! Music. Simultaneous with the hiring of Rogers, To[spin said that it has gained a "substantial" new strategic investment from Beats Electronics. Size of that investment was not announced. Topspin Media said that Beats will integrate its direct-to-fan marketing and retail software in "Daisy". Topspin's COO, Jeremy Bellinghausen, becomes CEO; Bellinghausen was hired at Topspin six months ago from Orbitz Worldwide. Ian Rogers remains on the board of Topspin Media as Exec Chairman.

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