The following research and work by “L”
It was always about the MONEY… they, SONY, wanted control of Michael’s CATALOG … worth BILLIONS of dollars… THE GOAL: MUSIC INDUSTRY DOMINANCE.
Over the years there was a major POWER STRUGGLE WAGED and massive PRESSURE was put on Michael, designed to get him in a position to relinquish control of his valuable catalog. They were RELENTLESS in getting to their goal.
The facts have always been there. One needed only to look past the BLATANTLY MALIGNANT headlines for the hidden TRUTH.
Michael came to a realization and stated publicly on several occasions that there was a conspiracy against him. On one occasion he stated that it was designed to force him into involuntary bankruptcy.
Follow the Money trail.
As we know Michael did a round of anti- Sony and anti- music companies protests in NYC, from July 6th through July 9th of 2002.
The following was Sony’s response and is indicative of their complicity of wanting to drive Michael into bankruptcy.
Sony’ s strategy : they wanted to get rid of Michael as an artist, without outright letting the public know this, but still keep the copyrights to his music and to gain full control of the ATV cataog. By all appearances the roots of this goal originated back in ’93.
July 9, 2002 Michael Jackson has ruined his own career with his bizarre antics and reputation as an accused child molester, a top honcho at the pop superstar’s record company said yesterday.
‘Charges of pedophilia have really spooked a lot of American record buyers,’ said the top-ranking Sony Music executive. “There are a lot of parents who don’t think he’s a wholesome entertainer. It’s shadowed him.”
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2002-07-09/news/18200719_1_sony-music-sony-insiders-black-artists
Note: Michael was documented as being in NYC between Friday, July 6th through Monday, July 9th, 2002. His Will is dated July 7th and signed in Los Angeles by 3 witnesses. Don’t think he flew to LA to sign a Will while he was in the throes of a public battle with Sony:
July 6, 2002 Michael Jackson took a feud with his record company to the streets of Manhattan yesterday, charging the recording industry with racism and opportunism at the expense of minority performers.
July 9, 2002 “…Al Sharpton-sponsored Music Industry Summit, Michael Jackson reiterated his charges that the recording industry is thoroughly racist, and that it launched a smear campaign against him as soon as he became as big a seller .
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,319537,00.html
July 10, 2002 “Without saying a word, Michael Jackson dashed to his black limousine in Harlem yesterday after a meeting of his newly formed coalition to further the rights of black musicians….
…To further complicate matters, Mr. Jackson and Sony Music Entertainment, Sony’s music publishing arm, are equal partners in a joint venture that began in 1995 when Mr. Jackson combined his catalog of copyrighted music with Sony’s, including songs by the Beatles. People close to Sony say that Mr. Jackson has approached Sony about acquiring its 50 percent stake in the music publishing business, a notion Sony has balked at. Instead, industry executives say, Sony would like to own Mr. Jackson’s share, and he has refused to sell…
…Mr. Sharpton said he and Mr. Cochran met with Mr. Branca several times in May to discuss their strategy. Mr. Sharpton agreed that the exposure would help him and his National Action Network…
…Mr. Branca did not return repeated phone calls to his office. On June 5, Mr. Sharpton held a news conference in New York City to announce the new coalition for black artists…But what has surprised many in the industry is how quickly the fight between Mr. Jackson and Mr. Mottola turned nasty. At an appearance last month in London [Killer Thriller Party], Mr. Jackson first attacked Mr. Mottola…
…Two people close to Mr. Jackson said he was preparing to sue Sony…
…Michael Jackson, center, met with the lawyer Johnnie Cochran, left, and the Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday…
Here is an interesting article about Mottola I recommend reading between the lines as well to get a more detailed picture:
http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/features/n_8387/
July 10, 2002 The roots of the brouhaha between Mr. Jackson and Mr. Mottola began earlier this year, people involved say, when Mr. Jackson and his lawyer, John Branca, started negotiating with Sony over how Mr. Jackson could get out of his contract.
Mr.Jackson wanted two things: first, he wanted to take possession of his valuable catalog of master recordings in three years, reduced from the period of at least seven years in his contract. Owning those rights are valuable because once Mr. Jackson owns them outright, he does not have to split royalty payments with Sony as he does now.
Second, . Mr. Jackson objected to Sony’s refusal to further support ‘Invincible’.
July 19, 2002 I was a little off about a salient part of Michael Jackson’s now-ended deal with Sony Music. I said Jackson would leave Sony without the masters to his famous albums Thriller, Off the Wall, Bad, etc.
I stand corrected.
According to very solid information I obtained this week, Jackson negotiated in the early ’80s for the reversion of the rights to his masters. He will get them back in about seven years or so.***
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,58153,00.html
(***note: this would be sometime before the END of 2009 through early 2010! )
Latter part of 2002 – early 2003 Michael sets out to resolve his financial situation. And we see that the individuals who were initially in competition with Michael,still had their long range plans and were making yet another attempt to gain full control of the ATV catalog. All this by putting together a deal in front of Michael, which dangled a temptingly large payout in exchange for Michael giving up his rights to the catalog:
Interesting to note as well that virtually from the beginning of Michael’s ownership of the ATV catalog, certain individuals have always remained in the picture. (Charles Koppelman and Martin Bandier were the original bidder for the Northern Songs catalog. More on that later.)
June 10, 2003 Michael Jackson is teaming with longtime music exec Charles Koppelman for a new venture in which Koppelman will act as a business adviser in exploiting Jackson’s various musical assets and reinvigorating his recording career.
Specifics are still limited, but Koppelman said he will work with the mercurial pop star in recording and releasing his next album, as well as staging future concert tours. Exec also will help generate revenues from Jackson’s half-interest in the Sony/ATV publishing catalog as well as his own MIJAC library.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117887697?refCatId=1236
Then watch the ones. With the biggest smiles. The idle jabbers...Cuz they're the backstabbers
Front to Back, Koppelman, Geragos(on phone) Branca left, Trudy Green right, Al Malnik end of table, McClain to left of Al. NO MICHAEL JACKSON!!
— ————————————–
Michael is arrested in November, 2003. Recall Michael ‘s statement during the Ed Bradeley ( 60 Minutes Interview) recorded on December 25, 2003:
Michael: .my album is number one all over the world. all over the world. America is the only one because. I don’t want to say too much.
.there ‘s a conspiracy.
http://blogcritics.org/video/article/michael-jackson-interview-on-60-minutes/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmrYhDxphHk&feature=player_embedded
Starting in 2003 through 2004 “The transaction outlined in the secret Goldman file would have been the culmination of an ambitious proposal to salvage Michael Jackson’s crumpled financial life. Jackson owed $270 million to Bank of America, which could take control of his songs had he missed a looming due date. (***Incidentally Bank of America is one of the shareholders of Sony Corp. http://stockzoa.com/ticker/sne/)
Under the Goldman proposal, he’d forfeit the music — an outcome that he fiercely wanted to avoid — but emerge with a horde of as much as $1.3 billion.
Acting as Jackson’s adviser, Charles Koppelman, the veteran entertainment executive and investor, recruited Goldman Sachs and worked closely with two of its private-equity aces, Gerry Cardinale and Henry Cornell, in crafting the proposal.”
“A target list also included other publishers — arms of Universal Music Group, BMG or EMI. The goal: industry dominance.”
http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/inside-secrets-goldman-deal-22479
“In the documents, Goldman’s master financial alchemists began proposing a venture to position Jackson as the Bill Gates of the music industry and described how not only the $300 million debt might be whittled but also detailed how the beleaguered legend could walk away with perhaps $1.3 billion — with the Wall Street firm exiting even richer.
But only if he would sell his interest in Sony/ATV and in Mijac, the catalogue of Jackson’s own hits. According to the secret documents, Goldman was prepared even to drag Jackson along into a deal to sell them.
Hmmm.
Now here is another twist:
2003-2004 As the proposal evolved during more than a year, its fundamental flaw — that Jackson
all but surely would forfeit his songs — remained clearly obvious to Branca. More than anyone, Branca
knew that owning the songs was one of his client Jackson’s great passions and that the singer worried intensely about them slipping from his grasp.
So why then had Branca worked so hard, as the secret files appear to indicate, for an outcome most feared by his client?
According to entrepreneur Malnik, Branca stood to collect $17 million from the Goldman dealings for a 5 percent interest that he held in Jackson’s stake in the Beatles’ catalog.
http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/michael-jackson-1-can-john-branca-save-
By all accounts Michael refused the deal.
2004 Alas, the Goldman deal, more than a year in the making, got no further than the paper on which it was written.
http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/michael-jackson-1-can-john-branca-save-
jackson-again-22420?page=0,2
The Goldman proposal went nowhere. And Michael‘s Bank of America loan was sold to Fortress Investment Group.
2005 Mr. Jackson used his stake in the song catalog as part of the collateral for about $270 million in loans from Bank of America. The bank sold the loans last year to Fortress Investment Group, a New York-based investment company that buys distressed debt.
Sony is back to their tactics:
April 13, 2006. Michael Jackson, the onetime pop-music king who has endured a lengthy slide toward insolvency, is close to a deal that would keep him from bankruptcy by refinancing hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, people briefed on the plan said last night.
Under the deal he has been negotiating, Mr. Jackson would agree to provide Sony — which is co-owner of the Sony/ATV Music catalog with him — with an option to buy half his stake, or about 25 percent of the catalog, at a set price, according to the people briefed on the deal.
Mr. Jackson’s financial managers had been pressing him to shed a part of his stake in the Sony/ATV venture since before he stood trial last year on charges of child molestation.
The deal also comes after years of efforts by an eclectic parade of financial advisers including the California billionaire Ronald W. Burkle and the Florida entrepreneur Alvin Malnik to offer Mr. Jackson
guidance for extricating himself from his woes.
Mr. Jackson’s financial managers had been pressing him to shed a part of his stake in the Sony/ATV venture since before he stood trial last year on charges of child molestation. He was acquitted last summer.
In negotiating the deal, Sony seeks to avoid the prospect that another bidder could gain ownership of the stake, which the company has long hoped to control.
August 8, 2006 Pop star Michael Jackson believes his former legal team set out to make him bankrupt, his spokeswoman has said.
“He has long been suspicious that some of those whom he entrusted to act on his behalf… may not have always acted in his best interest,” she said.
She said Jackson had obtained documents that pointed to “one of the biggest conspiracies in entertainment history”.
Financial problems have kept the singer in the headlines since his acquittal on child abuse charges last year.
Raymone Bain, who as well as being Jackson’s spokeswoman is also his manager, did not name the people behind the alleged conspiracy.
But she did say that it had been realized when documents were sent to Jackson “which reveal a deliberate plan by some former attorneys as well as associates and advisors to force Mr Jackson into involuntary bankruptcy.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5255316.stm
Concerning the’93 allegations.
For those who are still unsure of why Michael settled and did not fight in court, please know he was pressured by the insurance carrier. This will clarify.
Please read pg.2 (points 20-28) and pg.3 (points 1-7) here:
http://www.sbscpublicaccess.org/docs/ctdocs/032205mjmemospprtobj.pdf
Here we go back in time to 1993, during the time of the first allegations and what appears to have been the start of the pressure on Michael to let go of sole ownership of the catalog. What we see is that EMI, headed by Martin Bandier, with Branca representing Michael’s side, worked out a deal with Michael to administer the Music publishing division of the ATV catalog.
Following article has been edited and altered online since I last saved it. This is the original version:
November 24, 1993 In what is being touted as the richest music publishing deal ever, EMI Music is expected to announce today an agreement with embattled pop star Michael Jackson under which EMI will administer his ATV Music Publishing catalogue, which includes nearly all of the Beatles’ major hits.
As part of the deal, EMI will provide Jackson with a multimillion-dollar copyright acquisition fund for future purchases of music in partnership with EMI, although Jackson will retain ownership of ATV, sources said.
The deal comes at a tumultuous time for Jackson, who has disappeared from public view as he undergoes treatment for addiction to painkillers. He is also the subject of a criminal investigation into allegations that he molested a 13-year-old boy. Jackson has denied any wrongdoing.
Sources said that despite the upheaval in his personal life, Jackson has been keeping abreast of the negotiations with EMI.
‘Michael has the largest independent publishing company in the world,’ said music industry lawyer John Branca, who represented Jackson in the talks with EMI. ‘It’s good to know his business can carry on through all of the turmoil.’
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-24/business/fi-60346_1_music-publishing
Here is another article to refresh our memory of how Sony and Michael became partners:
November 18, 1995 Sony Music Enters Deal with Michael Jackson, ATV catalog.
New York Sony Music Entertainment which has been moving to re-establish itself as a leader in worldwide music publishing since 1986, has taken a giant step in that direction by bringing in Michael Jackson and his Beatles-rich ATV Music catalog as a partner.
In the deal that is said to have been on the negotiating table for more than a year, half of Sony Music ‘s publishing operation now belongs to Jackson, a superstar on Sony Music’s Epic label, while Sony Music becomes a partner in ATV Music, a catalog of some 150, 000 copyrights led by 250 songs by the Beatles..
Although the deal creates an immediate co-venture entity, the administration of ATV Music reamains in place as a result of an earlier multi-million dollar arrangement with EMI Music Publishing Worldwide, which is effective until Dec. 31, 1998.
As mentioned earlier and as cited in the following article, it is important to note, that Charles Koppelman (former CEO of EMI , 2003 Goldman Sachs proposal cited above) and Martin Bandier (former CEO of EMI, 2007- present CEO of Sony/ATV, ) were the investors Michael was bidding against for the Northern Songs/ ATV catalog in 1984:
September 22, 1985 In early June, Holmes a Court informed Branca in another letter that Jackson’s exclusive had expired, though he still welcomed Jackson’s interest.
The Jackson team, which had been interpreting Holmes a Court’s letters as signs that he still viewed Jackson as the chief bidder, got a jolt a few days later. They learned that Holmes a Court had signed a tentative $50-million deal with Charles Koppelman and Marty Bandier’s Entertainment Co.
But in early August, Holmes a Court’s agents contacted Jackson again, saying the door might still be open. Branca informed Holmes a Court attorney Geoffrey Davies that Jackson was indeed still interested, but only if something could be concluded quickly because Jackson was considering another major investment.
During this frantic period, concessions apparently were made by both sides. Jackson agreed to up his offer by $1.5 million. Holmes a Court threw in some other assets and also agreed to set up a scholarship in Jackson’s name at a U.S. university.
Though Koppelman had actually come up with a higher bid, Holmes a Court apparently accepted Jackson’s offer because it appeared that the singer could close the deal more quickly. Jackson’s early decision to examine the books before waiting for a formal contract turned out to be the key to the deal, a Holmes a Court representative said recently.
Martin Bandier at EMI:
April 24, 2006By the time EMI bought him out in 1989 — and kept him on as president — Mr. Bandier had a fairly good idea what he was doing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/24/business/media/24music.html
Martin Bandier lands at Sony/ ATV:
February 27, 2007 – Sony Corporation of America announced today that Martin Bandier has been named Chairman and CEO, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. As part of the agreement, Mr. Bandier will also make an investment in Sony/ATV, which is co-owned by Sony and trusts formed by Michael Jackson.
http://www.sony.com/SCA/press/070227.shtml
March 7, 2007 ”Michael Jackson has got a new business partner.
Martin Bandier, one of the most respected guys in the music business, is coming to Sony/ATV Music as president. Jackson still owns 50 percent of the company, and Sony has an option to buy out half of that stake at any time depending on Michael’s level of financial desperation.
Bandier was head of EMI Music and turned it into the most successful of the music publishing companies. He’s investing his own money into the venture, making him Michael’s partner.
There’s an irony here: Bandier was once partners, and remains friendly, with Charles Koppelman, who for three years helped run Jackson’s roller coaster financial world.
Bandier knows Jackson better than he probably knows himself. He’s considered an angel in a bad business, but he’s no fool. Bandier will likely be less compassionate toward Jackson than the business people who were previously running Sony/ATV”
http://www.topix.com/forum/who/michael-jackson/T3H2KB0M0V59A1KG4
January 26, 2012 Since taking the helm of Sony/ATV Music Publishing in April 2007, Martin Bandier transformed the once-sleepy major publisher into a contender for every big deal that comes along-he’s built a company that now has annual revenue of about $500 million. If a Sony-led consortium can complete its planned acquisition of EMI Music Publishing, it would be a particularly sweet moment for Bandier, giving him back control of the company he built and helmed for more than 18 years.”
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/features/billboard-power-100-martin-bandier-1006002172.story
And to get back on the Sony track in the aftermath of Michael’s passing:
June 26 [2009] (Bloomberg) – Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, the publishing venture owned by Michael Jackson and Sony Corp., will keep control of Beatles songs following the pop singer’s death, said a person with knowledge of the venture’s plans.
Jackson, who died yesterday at age 50 in Los Angeles, owned 50 percent of Sony/ATV, which holds rights to more than 200 songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, as well Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond and others. His stake is worth about $1 billion, said Ivan Thornton, a private-wealth adviser who has worked with Jackson and his family.
Sony/ATV will continue to hold the Lennon and McCartney catalog, said the person, who asked not to be named because the matter isn’t public. The U.K.’s Daily Mirror reported in January that Jackson planned to leave the Beatles rights to McCartney in his will to heal a rift between the musicians. Jackson paid $47.5 million in 1985 to buy the ATV catalog, outbidding McCartney and Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono.
‘Michael was very proud of this partnership,’ Martin Bandier, chief executive officer of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, said in an e-mail.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a3cr9j9ErNeM
Spring 2009 Phillips was said to be worried that a court might void AEG’s contract with the singer due to a conflict of interest — Jackson and AEG were sharing the same lawyer, Joel Katz, a well-known music attorney, and his gobal firm Greenburg Taurig.
http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/michael-jackson-5-return-branca-22424?page=0,1
December 9, 2010 Katz is co-general counsel with John Branca and Howard Weitzman repping the Michael Jackson estate in ongoing negotiations with Sony on the ATV transaction and financing. Also teamed with Branca on the Jackson recording contract of 2009 — the largest ever negotiated.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118028432)
NEW YORK, March 16 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Special Administrators for the Estate of Michael Jackson, John Branca and John McClain, and Sony Music will continue the label’s 30-year relationship with Michael Jackson and his music with a landmark recording deal, it was announced today.
With this new agreement, Sony Music’s Columbia Epic Label Group and Legacy Recordings will continue their term of rights to his catalog and also create new projects for Michael Jackson featuring the never-before-released Jackson recordings.
And so since the Summer of 2009, while we were all focused on the fallout from Michael’s untimely passing and most recently the Conrad Murray trial, Sony, in partnership with the Estate ,went about its plans for dominance of the music industry publishing business. RECALL THOSE LONG AGO GOALS, WHICH WERE DERAILED BUT NOT GIVEN UP ON WHEN MICHAEL ENDED UP WITH THE NORTHERN SONGS CATALOG.
Now one SHOULD question the background story of how it is that Sony Entertainment began its recovery from being in the red in ’09 to well on the way of wanting, and being ready, to swallow whole half the music publishing business in the Fall of 2011.
Flip to Pg 38 here to get an idea:
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/ar/8ido18000003dkyy-att/8ido18000003dl0u.pdf
Things are really looking up for Sony Entertainment thanks to all that they have gained since the Summer of 2009. And speaking of the long term goal of “Industry dominance”, they are on course:
Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and Sony won the auction for EMI’s recorded music and music publishing operations on Friday, trumping bids by archrivals Warner Music Group and BMG Music Publishing at the 11th hour.
On the publishing side, Sony got a last-minute assist from investment bank UBS, which agreed to provide it with more than US$1 billion in financing, according to one of the sources familiar with the matter. That allowed Sony to raise its offer and trump BMG.
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/11/11/universal-sony-stun-in-emi-4-1-billion-deal/
A Sony Corp. consortium Monday, Nov, 14, struck a $2.2 billion deal for the music publishing business of EMI Group Ltd., bringing to an end Citigroup Inc.’s auction of the record label.
The Japanese electronics and media group has teamed with the estate of Michael Jackson, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. PJSC, Jynwel Capital Ltd., Blackstone Group LP’s GSO Capital Partners LP and David Geffen to buy the asset three days after Citigroup agreed to sell EMI’s recorded music division to Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group for £1.2 billion ($1.9 billion).
http://www.thedeal.com/content/tmt/sony-consortium-buys-emi-music-publishing.php
EU approves Sony’s acquisition of part of EMI
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9U85SC00.htm
This is SHEER SONY GLUTTONY.
And incidentally, the competition is not happy.
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/record-labels/video-edgar-bronfman-jr-says-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/business/media/emi-consolidation-with-sony-and-
universal-prompts-scrutiny-and-opposition.html?_r=1
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/02/impala-comes-out-swinging-
against-emi-pub-deal-that-would-give-sony-excessive-power-.html?