Michael Jackson’s estate and Sony have agreed on the transfer of the King of Pop’s 50 percent stake in their joint Sony/ATV venture for $750m.
Jackson outbid former-Beatle Paul McCartney for the ATV catalog, which included many Beatles songs, back in 1985. A decade later, he teamed up with Sony to form Sony/ATV, giving the Japanese giant control over how a vast amount of music and lyrics is used on radio, TV, film and now online – a revenue stream that has reached a magnitude that can scarcely have been imagined back then.
The sale will not include rights to Jackson’s master recordings or songs that he wrote, and the singer’s estate will continue to have a stake in EMI Publishing, Inc.
At the time Jackson acquired ATV, many criticised the singer, who was still in his twenties, for splashing $41.5m of his wealth on a vanity project. The deal soured his relationship with McCartney, who co-wrote the most valuable portion of the catalog and who had been collaborating with Jackson on material. The partnership with Sony that the purchase allowed made it one of the most astute pieces of ‘side business’ ever done by a recording artist, giving him a half stake in works by The Beatles, Bob Dylan and other hit making musicians, including Eminem and Taylor Swift.
The proposed sale will be another posthumous blockbuster deal for Jackson, whose estate has erased the singer’s massive debts through a mixture of new music and movie ventures and re-releases of the singer’s most popular music. Jackson’s estate benefits his mother and three children.
The deal for Jackson’s half of the Sony/ATV catalog is expected to close by the end of March.
