Carlyle Group Could Earn Sweet Pay-Off in Possible Beats Sale to Apple

Dr. Dre. Photograph by s_bukley / Shutterstock.com.

This is how the big boys do it, and by big boys we mean the good folks at the Carlyle Group, a global asset management firm based in Washington that last year invested—to some guffaws—$500 million for just under 50 percent of Dr. Dre’s Beats Electronics, purveyors of banging headphones that have become a hi-sign of the hip.

The business press is reporting this morning that Apple is about to buy Beats for $3.2 billion. If it happens next week, as is speculated, the sale, Apple’s largest ever acquisition, would give Carlyle a $1 billion return on their seven-month old investment, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Turn it up.