Straight from the NYTimes, Brian X. Chen reports that Apple has purchased Beats for $3 billion. This tidbit jumped out at me:

For Apple, the acquisition of Beats, expected for weeks, largely follows a familiar pattern. Apple has historically bought technology outfits that have resources and talent that it can blend into future devices and online services. Beats, which offers headphones and a fledgling music service, fits that criteria.

But the Beats deal is also different from the others. Until now, Apple, the richest tech company in the world, has avoided billion-dollar takeovers in favor of smaller deals. The Beats deal is its largest ever.

Much of mainstream tech media has been clamoring how this purchase is unusual for Apple. NYTimes reports the opposite. Also, this quote pretty much confirms the company bought Beats for its streaming service as a hedge move:

Mr. Cook called the deal a “no-brainer.” He said that Apple had bought 27 companies since last year, but that did not mean Apple had to buy those companies.

“Could Eddy’s team have built a subscription service? Of course,” he said. “We could’ve built those 27 other things ourselves, too. You don’t build everything yourself. It’s not one thing that excites us here. It’s the people. It’s the service.”