Monday, June 13, 2005

December date set for Jackson loan payback

If Michael Jackson, acquitted today of child molestation charges, does not pay back a $200 million loan by December, Fortress Investment, the company which recently bought Liberty Group Publishing, may have another valuable commodity on its hands.
As mentioned earlier in The Turner Report, Fortress bought Jackson's debt from Bank of America and the collateral on that debt includes the publishing rights to Jackson's own music, plus the rights to the Beatles' music. As I have enjoyed writing the past few weeks, that would make Fortress owners of both the Beatles music and the Big Nickel (as well as The Carthage Press, the Neosho Daily News, and 300 other Liberty publications).
CNN reports that Jackson is not technically in debt since the value of what he owns is worth more than the amount he owes, but "the bulk of Jackson's assets is the Beatles catalog. And his ability to hold onto that property -- and avoid a deep financial crisis-- rests on his ability to generate enough cash to make his loan payments."

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