The estate of the late Michael Jackson co-owns the world’s biggest music publisher, Sony/ATV, which spins off around $100 million in profit each year under the aegis of its popular chief executive, Martin Bandier.
The asset is being evaluated by its two owners to figure out who buys out whom.
Sony Corp. has hired investment bank Allen & Co. to work on valuing its portion of the lucrative asset. The Japan-headquartered consumer-electronics giant recently triggered an option to acquire the 50 percent stake owned by Jacko’s estate.
But Sony isn’t the only one coming up with a valuation. Jackson’s estate, repped by music lawyer John Branca, is also said to be talking about finding backers to buy out Sony. Most estimates put the Sony/ATV asset at around $2 billion to $2.5 billion.
The difficult challenge facing Branca is persuading the Jackson kids (Paris, Prince and Blanket) to forgo the giant check and double down and allow him to oversee the acquisition of the entire company with fresh backers.
Sources tell On the Money that probate courts would likely have to OK any decisions made on behalf of Jackson’s estate.
As if things couldn’t get more complicated, there’s the side issue of the EMI catalog, which is owned separately but managed by Sony/ATV. A change of control might trigger an exit for the owners of the catalog, who potentially could move somewhere else.
SOURCE: NY Post
