The Michael Jackson Estate has won a ruling over the sale of the King of Pop’s catalog to Sony Music.
A California appeals court ruled that Jackson’s estate could proceed with a sale of the music legend’s catalog to Sony Music valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The ruling overturned Jackson’s mother – Katherine’s – objections, which aimed to stop the sale from going forward. It came a month after the court had issued a tentative ruling against her and finalized that decision in a August 21 ruling that Jackson’s estate executors – John Branca and John McClain – did not violate the King Of Pop’s terms while making the deal with Sony.
Katherine Jackson had claimed that the sale was not in her son’s best interest and that the catalog’s value would continue to rise. However, the court determined that the executors of Jackson’s estate had the authority to proceed with the sale under the terms of his will.
“The will gave the executors broad powers of sale, with no exception for the specific assets at issue in this case,” the court wrote. “As such, [a lower judge] 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, Billboard reported that the Jackson estate and Sony Music had reached a deal in which the music giant would be able to purchase half of the singer’s publishing and recorded masters catalogue for over $600 million.
Credit: RTTNews
