Noel Lee, founder of audio cable maker Monster, is suing Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine for keeping him out of the sweet Beats sale to Apple for $3 billion, according to the Guardian. Noel Lee filed a complaint in California said that the pair convinced him to reduce his stake in the company from 5% to 1.25% and said they weren’t planning on selling Beats for years. Lee had a hand in designing the wildly popular headphones.
Lee said he was asked to sign a deal with smartphone maker HTC in 2011, which ended the Monster partnership. If Lee had kept his stake at 5%, he could have made $150 million from the sale of Beats to Apple. However, he did acknowledged the split was “amicable” when it occurred.
