Last week, former hedge-fund manager Steven Lamar filed a legal action against Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and others regarding Beats Electronics, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Earlier this month, it was reported that Apple is set to purchase Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion.
Lamar accuses the Beats Electronics frontmen with breach of contract and is seeking as high as a four percent royalty rate for sale of the company’s headphones, among other claims.
Lamar “is suing Iovine, Dre, Beats, Pentagram and H&A for breaching the terms of the settlement agreement and royalty agreement,” The Hollywood Reporter says in its story. “He’s suing the same parties for bad faith denial of contract; suing Brunner, Pentagram and H&A for breach of fiduciary duties; and suing Brunner for tortious interference for allegedly inducing Iovine/Dre/Beats to renege on their contractual obligations made eight years ago.”
According to his filings, Lamar in 2006 took the concept of celebrity-endorsed headphones to Iovine. Once Beats Electronics signed with Monster, LLC for distribution, Lamar’s filing says that Dr. Dre and Iovine were slated for a 20 percent royalty and Lamar and his Jibe Audio company a five percent royalty.
In July of 2006, Dr. Dre and Iovine filed a lawsuit against Lamar, Jibe, Pentagram (a design firm reportedly used by Lamar to design the line of headphones) and SLS International (where Lamar was president at the time) regarding Beats, accusing them of not living up to their contractual obligations and of planning to release their own line of “Beats” headphones without Dr. Dre, the Hollywood Reporter says.
Dr. Dre and Iovine settled that case and agreed to pay Lamar and his co-defendants a four percent royalty on certain headphones, though which ones was not specified.
Lamar’s filings claim that Pentagram and Hinrichs & Associates, its tax and auditing firm, collected payments and other monetary compensation for additional headphones also covered through its agreement.
Lamar’s cross-filing against Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and Beats Electronics is as follows:
Beats Cross by Eriq Gardner
