The Week’s Best Business Longreads: Business Beast’s Picks for Feb. 9, 2013

Beat By Dre: The Exclusive Inside Story of How Monster Lost the World
Sam Biddle, Gizmodo

“Beats by Dre” are the most popular, bass-heavy, high-end, fashion statement headphones in the world. They were also designed and manufactured by a high-end-cables company that got rolled by Dre and Interscope honcho Jimmy Iovine.

You're Wrong, Henry — I CAN Create Something Out of Nothing!
Henry Blodget and David Einhorn, Business Insider

The Business Insider publisher and the activist investor discuss whether Einhorn’s idea to get more money out of Apple is as good as Einhorn thinks it is.

The Idealist
Justin Peters, Slate

Aaron Swartz didn’t really invent RSS or found Reddit, but he did leave behind an unfinished legacy of making the world’s information free, accessible, and useful—and that mission ended up killing him.

The .03% Solution
Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica

A financial transactions tax is the bane of Wall Street, and yet has a surprisingly deep well of support in the U.S. (and is being implemented in Europe). Will we see one here?

Mandiant, the Go-To Security Firm for Cyber-Espionage Attacks
Brad Stone and Michael Riley, Bloomberg Businessweek

When nearly every major publication reported that they were victims of Chinese hackers, one firm was mentioned every time: Mandiant. This is the story of the secretive company at the forefront of cybersecurity.

And Now Let Us Praise, and Consider the Absurd Luck of, Famous Men
Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic

The story of every successful man—even the founder of Silicon Valley— inevitably includes some incredible luck.