Wouldn't it have made more sense not to allow him to perform? Then he would not have continued to make enough money to pay his loans; they would have defaulted and he would have lost everything and been living in a trailer park in Kansas.
Seems to me they invested an awful lot of money by renting him a house, paying all his bills, etc. Still, they don't have the catalog. It will take them YEARS this way. The other way it would have been quicker and cheaper.
Can you maybe explain what YOU think might have happened? You know, conjecture? It seems to be that Murray made a fatal mistake, and that's all there is to it? That's ok if you think that, but I'm wondering?
I'm NOT saying AEG and/or Sony were. . behind anything. However, there are a lot of detailed threads here that explore how both AEG and Sony gained more profits from Michael being dead than alive. If he'd just canceled, that would be one thing, and there wouldn't have been that much widespread interest in him after that, and certainly not the huge interest now in the movie, his albums, and various types of memorabilia. But, the worlds greatest superstar DIED! Sony's profits from Michael's record-sales have been enormous, which they surely would not have been even close to what they are now, had he lived. He didn't even have a new album to promote with the concerts, that we know of. His last album was Invincible, and the rest have all been compilations of various configurations of songs. OLD songs.
If the AEG folks were pretty sure that Michael would not actually be able to more than one or two concerts, then the TII movie was by far a more sure thing, and has gained a lot of profits for AEG, Sony, and Regal Cinemas. (TII is a partnership with Sony and AEG, with Branca and McClain as executive producers.) There is the DVD coming out, as well, and a lot of merchandise. There is also the possibility of Neverland becoming a theme-park, which the brothers alluded to when they were on LKL recently. (Profiting Colony Capital, where Tohme is a partner. Randy Phillips might have an interest there, too, but we don't know that. We do know he's associated with Tohme through a marriage.) We don't KNOW what kind of concert-ready shape Michael was in. Just enough question about that to keep many people wondering.
What happens to the ATV catalog remains to be seen, but already there is a LOT of money being made all-around.
So, in all seriousness, what do YOU think happened as a best-guess?