Apple-Beats Is On & More Stories You Can't Miss Today

IT'S ON – Techcrunch reports that Apple's $3.2 billion acquisition of headphone-maker Beats is happening with "70% certainty" according to a "well-placed source," though it almost fell through several times. (Note all the caveats.) As suspected, the deal is mainly one giant acqui-hire, writes Techcrunch's John Biggs, following in the vein of other recent Apple hires such as Burberry's Angela Ahrendts and Yves Saint Laurent's Paul Deneve. Tim Cook is replacing the one icon that was Steve Jobs with a full roster of execs steeped in high and pop culture, and perhaps most interestingly with minds formed outside Silicon Valley. “They want Jimmy and they want Dre,” said Techcrunch's source. “He’s got fashion and culture completely locked up.”

MORE JOB CUTS AT HP – The downsizing is not over for Hewlett-Packard. In a third, and huge, adjustment to its restructuring plan, HP announced it will be laying off an additional 11,000 to 16,000 employees worldwide, for a total of 50,000 job cuts or about 15% of its global workforce. Tough news after CEO Meg Whitman had said with the previous adjustment that it would be the last one. HP, which sales have been declining for 11 straight quarters, is caught in the classic incumbent's dilemma: it's still too reliant on its laptop business, which is declining, and too slow and hesitant to innovate in other sectors (smartphones and tablets) that would accelerate the death of the laptop. On the enterprise side, its hardware business is suffering from the adoption of cloud computing. Whitman, a LinkedIn Influencer, has written several posts on HP's situation: "there is no greater challenge in business than carrying out a corporate turnaround, she wrote last year. But there is also no opportunity as exciting as working to restore one of the most iconic companies in the world. It’s why I took the job." I encourage you to read more here, here, here and here for a full picture.

SUPERWOMAN – Ah, going home after a long day's work, kicking off the heels and sitting down to a healthy dinner with the family, a long bath and a good book... Doesn't sound like your life? It doesn't to many of us. According to a new study released in the Journal of Science and Medicine and explained by the Washington Post, stress levels for both men and women, measured by the hormone cortisol, are much higher at home than they are at work. And women in particular say they feel much happier at work. So you may be saying your boss is stressing you out, but your body says Junior's the culprit. (Only high income people contradict this finding and feel more stressed at work.) No, we're not heartless and happy to leave our kids behind, one researcher –Sarah Damaske, sociologist at Penn State – explains: it's the multitasking at home that's eating at us, juggling dinner, homework, bills and the demands of a relationship, while work offers more satisfaction in getting tasks accomplished one at a time. “I don’t think it’s that home is stressful. When you’re home on Saturday, you’re not working. You go to the park, catch up on laundry. The day goes at a slower pace,” Damaske told the Washington Post. “I think it’s the combination of the two, work and home, that makes home feel so stressful to people during the work week.” And work feel so stressful when it's encroaching on your family time. Take a break, happy Memorial Day weekend!