Apple might buy Beats Electronics with foreign cash
Apple might not be overpaying for Beats Electronics after all. The two companies have not confirmed Apple’s (AAPL) rumored purchase of high-end headphone maker Beats, but media reports have put the price tag at $3.2 billion. Some analysts have said that the price would be too high, especially considering that The Carlyle Group (CG) paid $500 million for roughly 50% of Beats just last September. But Apple (AAPL) effectively could be paying much less for the company because Beats established tax residency in Ireland in 2012 with a holding company. Depending on how a potential acquisition is structured, Apple could buy Beats with foreign funds that have not been repatriated to the U.S., wrote Joe Harpaz, head of the corporate tax and accounting business at Thomson Reuters, in a blog post on Forbes on Thursday. “Corporate M&A decisions are increasingly being driven by offshore tax policy,” Harpaz said. “Following the rough…