Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Michael Jackson and the Big Nickel

CNN and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that Fortress Investment may be about to strike it rich again.
After hitting the motherlode earlier this week when it finalized its purchase of The Big Nickel (as well as The Carthage Press, the Neosho Daily News, and the rest of Liberty Group Publishing) the investment firm, as reported earlier in this blog, may soon own the publishing rights to all of Michael Jackson's music, as well as a 50 percent share of the Beatles' music.
Fortress put itself in that position when it bought Jackson's loans from Bank of America recently, according to published reports. The publishing rights were put up as collateral for those loans. CNN says Jackson has already defaulted on those loans and is spending $20 million to $30 million a year more than he makes. Obviously, a conviction in his child molestation case, if that occurs, will prevent him for being able to increase his cash flow through lucrative foreign concerts. Experts quoted in the Journal say he might have to sell a portion or all of the publishing rights he owns.

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