Apple Layoffs 2014: 200 Beats Employees Confirmed to be Terminated

It's almost always expected that some human resources will be bumped off in the wake of a merger, like what's actually happening now at Apple just two months after it officially bought Beats Electronics.

On Thursday, the Steve Jobs-founded company announced it will "gradually lay off 200 Beats employees, or nearly 29% of the 700 people currently working for the headphones company," according to Mashable.

"While 700 Beats employees will begin working at Apple after the deal closes, only 500 of them will keep their jobs longer than a few months," the site added.

The tech giant released a statement through 9to5Mac, saying that it is "excited to have the Beats team join Apple." In fact, Apple has "extended job offers to every Beats employee."

So why the lay off?

"Because of some overlap in our operations, some offers are for a limited period and we'll work hard during this time to find as many of these Beats employees as we can another permanent job within Apple," the statement concluded.

A source told The Wall Street Journal that the roles affected in the lay off "will come from areas such as human resources, finance and support services, where there will be considerable overlap after Beats is part of Apple."

"Many Beats employees in development and creative roles have been offered positions at Apple," 9to5Mac said. "Many of these employees will be offered space in Apple's Cupertino offices, but Apple is said to plan to retain the Santa Monica offices, and select engineers on the Beats Music streaming service will continue working out of Southern California."

In late May this year, it was announced that Apple had acquired Beats for $3 billion, which makes it the company's biggest acquisition in a long time. According to Forbes, this move is "something of an admission of failure for the computer giant: it means that Apple has largely given up on its own audio devices, once a hallmark of the electronics-as-fashion trend and ceded the crown to Beats."

"It's also an admission that Apple's iTunes Radio hasn't been as successful as hoped in the streaming wars and needed a new ally in Beats Music," the finance and business news source added.

Currently, the iPhone maker is said to have started the transition of its iTunes infrastructure to Beat Music's tech, aside from transitioning employees, 9to5Mac noted. "The Beats technology is not easily compatible with Apple's existing servers, so it is likely that parts of Beats Music will need to be re-architected in the near-future," the site's source said.