Sony is paying the estate of Michael Jackson $750 million dollars to buy out the late pop star’s stake in the world’s largest music publishing company which owns the music copyrights of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift.
As part of the agreement, Sony will make a lump sum payment of about $733 million as well as distributions to the singer’s estate, the company said in a statement on Monday.
The deal establishes Sony’s control over the joint venture that Michael Jackson and Sony formed in 1995. Jackson had bought ATV a decade earlier from Australian businessman Robert Holmes a Court, outbidding Beatles singer Paul McCartney.
Sony/ATV controls many popular songs such as “All You Need Is Love,” “Moon River” and “The Mission Impossible Theme,” as well as representing the copyrights of musicians such as Bob Dylan, Queen and The Rolling Stones.
