Sony’s $600M Purchase of Michael Jackson Estate Approved Despite Objections

Michael Jackson’s estate has received approval from a Los Angeles appeals court to sell a portion of the late pop star’s songs to Sony Music Group for approximately $600 million.

The decision came despite objections from Jackson’s mother, Katherine, who asserted that the sale would go against her son’s wishes.

Katherine Jackson, 94, registered several objections after attorney John Branca and A&R executive John McClain, co-executors of Michael’s estate and trustees of the Michael Jackson Family Trust, announced their plans to proceed with the sale to Sony in November 2022.

The court concluded that Jackson’s will provided his executors “broad powers to buy and sell estate assets in the estate’s best interests,” while also stipulating that “all of the estate’s assets will be distributed to the trust.”

The trust beneficiaries include Jackson’s three children—Prince, 27, Paris, 26, and Bigi, 22—as well as several unnamed charities.

Katherine Jackson had contended that her son, who passed away from a cardiac arrest caused by a propofol overdose at age 50 in 2009, had expressed a desire to keep the estate’s assets within the family.

In its ruling, the court reaffirmed that Jackson’s will authorized the sale and supported a prior decision by a probate court. The ruling stated, “The will gave the executors broad powers of sale, with no exception for the specific assets at issue in this case. As such, the probate court did not err in concluding that it was Michael’s intent to allow the executors to sell any estate assets, including those at issue in the proposed transaction.”

Earlier this year, Bigi Jackson, Michael’s youngest son, filed a court objection to stop his grandmother from using estate funds to finance her legal battle.

Bigi, formerly known as Blanket and born Prince Michael Jackson II via surrogate in 2002, submitted legal documents arguing that Katherine should cover her own legal expenses. He stated that it would be “unfair” for him and his siblings, Paris and Prince, who are heirs to Jackson’s estate, to pay for the litigation.

A new biopic about Michael Jackson, titled Michael, is slated for release in cinemas on 18 April 2025. Directed by Training Day and The Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua, the film will feature Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the main role, portraying the King of Pop.

Discussing his approach to the film, Fuqua told Entertainment Weekly last year, “Just to tell the facts as we know it, about the artist, about the man, about the human being. You know, the good, bad, and the ugly.”

Michael Jackson’s reputation was significantly damaged by a series of child sexual abuse allegations in the 1990s. He was acquitted of sexual molestation charges in a widely-publicized trial in 2005.

Source: The Independent, Entertainment Weekly