Sony look set to trigger the first-refusal sales clause of the Sony/ATV catalog, giving the MJ Estate a chance to acquire the rights to the largest publishing catalog ever (likely a majority stake with smaller, backing partners). That would make MJ's Estate the most powerful and lucrative music royalty company of all time, by a massive margin. Gross earnings by the catalog annually are over $1 billion.
It's sort of weird, this is how it played out:
- MJ buys Beatles songs in 1985 as part of the ATV Publishing Catalog for $47.5M (adjusted = $105M)
- Sony begs MJ to sell for hundreds of millions in the early 90s. He refuses but signs a new record deal with them.
- Sony and MJ agree to a merging deal: Sony get a 50% stake in ATV Publishing and must put all their royalty artists into the catalog (current and future) giving MJ 50% of their royalties also. MJ gets a one-off payment of $95M (adjusted = $150M)
- Late 90s and up to 2001 they acquire smaller catalogs and merge them into the biggest catalog in history.
- Sony get greedy as music sales reach their historic peak in the early 00s. They start spinning rumors that MJ is short on cash and must sell The Beatles songs. MJ insists he will never sell his songs. Sony sabotage Michael's
Invincible album leading to poor sales (for MJ) and zero promotion once released.
- MJ proves in court that Sony conspired to bankrupt him through his record deal and he is allowed to exit his Sony deal after several compilation releases (Number Ones, Essential Michael Jackson) and no more studio albums. Sony re-buy their stake in his Michael's own catalog (MiJac music) after agreeing they would sell to MJ in 2005. Their renewal is for 10 years, until 2015, which devastated Michael, mid-molestation ordeal.
- Sony offer hundreds of millions of dollars to MJ throughout the late 00s to force him to sell to alleviate mounting debt. He restructures his debt using Neverland and other assets to avoid selling at all costs. He agrees to
This Is It in another effort to begin generating enough money to solve his cash flow problems.
- June 25th 2009: MJ dies. His popularity sky-rockets, tens of millions of albums and millions of tribute Cirque tickets lead the billions filling the estate with cash once again. Sony pays $250M to keep MJ's own music another two years (until 2017) and release posthumous works.
- 2012: The EU allows Sony/ATV acquire another massive catalog, pushing their song count to over 3M. Valuations for the catalog soar past $2.5 billion.
- 2015: Sony is on the brink of bankruptcy after declining electronics sales, music sales and poor box office takings. They're now attempting to get the MJ Estate to purchase their once prized crown jewel that they were willing to destroy MJ for. Funny, this is the year their original Michael music ownership would have ended after they signed again in 2005 when MJ didn't want them too... and now they look set to lose it all.
