Beats beats lawsuit claiming fraud before $3.2B sale to Apple - CNET

A judge has dismissed the heart of a lawsuit against Apple's Beats Electronics that claimed that the high-end-headphone maker's co-founders conspired to sever the headphone line from Monster before Apple bought the company in 2014 for $3.2 billion.

The summary judgment issued late Monday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Fahey resolves the key charges that claimed Beats co-founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine duped former partner Noel Lee, founder of video and audio cable maker Monster. The lawsuit, which was filed in January 2015, had been scheduled to go to trial next week. The trial will now focus on forcing Monster to pay its attorney fees and other costs, according to the Associated Press.

The lawsuit claimed that Beats "fraudulently acquired" the line of headphones and its technology with a "change of control" clause when Taiwanese phone maker HTC acquired a 51 percent stake in Beats in 2011, depriving the company of hundreds of millions of dollars. Less than a month after the HTC purchase, Monster alleges that Beats repurchased half the interest HTC had just acquired.