Michael Jackson & the Beatles
Coveting the killer catalogue
By Dr. Firpo Carr
Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper
December 24 - 30, 2009
Sometime in the mid-1980s Michael Joseph Jackson found himself at the home of Paul and Linda McCartney. As the story goes, while the three enjoyed dinner together Sir Paul McCartney introduced Michael to the idea of owning publishing rights to certain songs. Paul left the dinner table to retrieve a booklet of all the songs he owned the publishing rights to. Seeing them fired the imagination of the razor-sharp business mind that was Michael Jackson's. That Michael had such a mind is verified by Ivan Thornton, a financial expert who was the Jacksons' own private wealth adviser. He is quoted as saying: "His business mind was fascinating." Thornton didn't stop there. "We'd go to meetings with bankers and Wall Street people and once I explained the language to him, he totally got it. There was no formal education there, but his natural knack was off the charts."
McCartney explained to Dr. M. Joseph Jackson that music publishing was the way to make BIG money. The Gloved One reportedly responded by saying that someday he himself would own the publishing rights to the songs made by that super mega institution called The Beatles. "Great," Paul laughed. "Good joke." Alas, it was no joke. Michael Joseph Jackson was deadly serious. But what are the details that lead to the King of Pop owning the killer ATV catalogue of Beatle tunes?
What is ATV?: Associated TeleVision (ATV) is the British company that at one time completely owned the Beatles' catalogue of songs. It was started in 1955, several years before Michael Jackson was born, by Lew Grade. In 1957 the company acquired Pye Records, which was at the time one of three prominent record companies in the United Kingdom. During the 1960s British music explosion here in the United States ATV Music Publishing and its wholly-owned subsidiary Pye Records were at the forefront. In 1968, ATV pulled off a coup by acquiring the rights to the Lennon-McCartney song catalogue which was entitled Northern Songs. The value of this acquisition can be seen in the fact that virtually every song that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote, right up until the Beatles split in 1971, was in the catalogue. The two Beatles, however, were not about to go down without a fight to keep the catalogue. As one source recounts:
"Northern Songs had been co-owned and administered by Brian Epstein and Dick James. Upon Epstein's death in 1967, James, who was approaching retirement, put the company up for sale. Lennon and McCartney, upset that the songs they had written were not theirs legally, attempted to gain ownership of the publishing rights. Their bid to gain control, part of a long and acrimonious fight, failed. The financial clout of Grade, their adversary in the bidding war, ensured that the music written by the two Beatles passed into the control of ATV."
By the time the 1980s rolled around Lew Grade's financial empire apparently began to crumble. As a result, both ATV Music Publishing and Pye Records were up for sale. Reports indicate that in 1985 an Australian businessman--not Rupert Murdock, but rather, Robert Holmes á Court--bought the companies, fired a lot of people, and then sold ATV and Pye for a hefty profit.
Prophecy Fulfilled: So, just who did Robert Holmes á Court sell the companies to? You guessed it. Michael Joseph Jackson. It was just as he told Paul McCartney over dinner not too long ago. But was this a ruthless, treacherous, underhanded business deal on Michael's part? Was he in fact sneakily stabbing his teacher in the back? Not according to one account of what transpired. Here's what one source says: "John Branca, Jackson's attorney, advised the singer that the Northern Songs catalogue was up for sale. Warned of the competition he would face in buying such popular songs, Jackson remained resolute in his decision to purchase them. Branca approached McCartney's attorney to query whether the Beatle was planning to bid. The attorney stated he wasn't; it was ‘too pricey.' McCartney had previously attempted to purchase Northern Songs alongside John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono in 1981 for $20 million; the pair would each pay $10 million. Ono refused as she thought it was too high a price. Not wanting to spend the $20 million himself, McCartney let the sale fall through. After months of negotiating, Branca closed the deal and purchased Northern Songs on Jackson's behalf for $47.5 million."
Sony, the One and Only: But how did it come to be called "Sony/ATV Music Publishing"? Indeed, how exactly did Sony enter the picture? Actually, insofar as the details are concerned there's more than one version as to what happened. One source writes: "After Jackson's acquisition of ATV Music Publishing, his record label, CBS, were negotiating the sale of their record division in an unrelated deal. Following hurriedly arranged meetings and disagreements over the selling price, a deal was sealed by Jackson during a concert in Tokyo. Upon seeing the success of this sale, Japanese corporation Sony sought to break away from its core business of hardware manufacturing and diversify into music, films and games. Looking for further opportunities, the company aimed to expand its music publishing interests. The Japanese corporation offered Jackson $90 million for 50% of ATV Music Publishing in 1995."
Time Magazine cites a figure of more than $90 million: "In 1995, Jackson agreed to merge ATV with Sony's music-publishing business. The Japanese corporation paid Jackson $150 million to complete the deal and split ownership of the new company with the performer 50-50. In March 2007 an audit of Jackson's finances valued his half of Sony/ATV at $390 million." Either way, everyone seems to agree on the fact that Michael Jackson was rather pleased with the deal. In 1995 he is reportedly quoted in Jet Magazine as saying: "The merging of ATV with Sony establishes our commitment to create one of the largest music publishing ventures in the world. We have been working on this for over a year and, now, with the two of us together, the sky is our only limit." To be sure, Michael thought the merger of ATV Music Publishing and Sony was a match made in heaven. But would all parties involved end up there? Stay tuned for the revealing answer.
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