Is Dr. Dre The World's First Billionaire Rapper?
In August 2011, Dre and Jimmy sold 50% of their Beats to Taiwanese electronics company HTC for $309 million. In a strange move, HTC sold 25% of its stake back to Dre and Jimmy for $150 million almost exactly one year later. In September 2013, the private equity firm Carlyle Group purchased HTC's remaining 25% stake. Carlyle also purchased another 25% stake which again left Jimmy and Dre with 25% each. The Carlyle investment valued the company at $2 billion which meant Dre and Jimmy's stakes were worth $500 million each.
First off, Dr. Dre has a $200 million fortune that has nothing to do with Beats By Dre. This fortune comes from music, producing and touring. Next we used Beats By Dre's $2 billion valuation from the Carlyle Group investment that occurred just five months earlier. At $2 billion, Dre's 25% stake added an extra $300 million after taxes to his net worth.
Assuming that Apple is paying all cash, Dr. Dre will earn $800 million off the Beats sale. The investment will qualify for long term capital gains treatment which will bring his Federal tax rate down from 40% to 20%. As a resident of California, Dre will pay 13.3% state taxes for a grand total tax burden of 33.3%. That means Dre will pay roughly $266 million in taxes off this deal, leaving him with a $534 million profit.
Based on the numbers that are available at the time of this writing, after the Beats sale goes through Dr. Dre will be worth $735 million.
Where these numbers might change is if we find out that part of the deal will come in the form of Apple stock instead of cash. As of Friday afternoon, Apple is trading at $585 per share. That's way up from when it dipped down below $400 a year ago, but 16% down from its all time high of $700 back in September 2012.
This is from Celebrity Networth, read more here