Sony has dropped $750 million (N150 billion) to acquire the late musician and entrepreneur’s stake in Sony/ATV Publishing.
The King of Pop, Michael Jackson had acquired ATV for $41.5 million in 1985 and joined forces with SONY in 1995 to form SONY/ATV.
TMZ reports Sony Corp. announced the deal to take over Jackson’s 50% stake in the joint venture that was launched in 1995 — and owns copyrights for some of the biggest recordings in history. For instance, Sony/ATV controls “New York, New York,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” “All You Need Is Love” and “The Mission Impossible Theme.”
According to the BBC, “The purchase will give Sony the rights to about three million songs, including works by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift.
However, the deal does not include Jackson’s master recordings.”