Re: Death Investigation Chat - 3rd Session
There is this money timeline from MJfiles:
(Note - good to add to this)
http://www.mjfiles.com/more/business/timeline-michaels-money/
A Timeline Of Michael’s Money
By Polly
Published: February 28, 2010
Posted in: BusinessTags: ATV Catalog,
money,
Sony
From the time he made his fortune in the 80’s, Michael’s finances have been the source of many rumors and much speculation. He purchased the most lucrative music catalog in the world, weathered damaging allegations against his character, openly criticised his record company, shouldered countless loans and law suits, and was heavily criticised himself for his lavish spending. In order to gain a better understanding of Michael’s life, we have compiled a timeline detailing his changing fortunes.
1975:
The Jackson 5 leave Motown and join CBS Records, which offers them much better contracts, plus guaranteed fees of at least $350,000 per album. Michael also gains some income from concerts, but this is still income that he shares with his brothers and which is managed by his father.
1982:
In a move towards creative and financial independence, Michael breaks away from his father and the Jackson 5 and collaborates with Quincy Jones on 3 albums. The first one is “Thriller”, which eventually racks up sales of 51 million copies globally, making it the best-selling album in history. Michael’s pre-expense profit of sales of the album surpasses $125 million. Those close to him in the “Thriller” era, credit Michael with financial acumen and astute business judgment.
1985:
Michael purchases ATV Music, which owns the copyright to songs written by the Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney, for $47.5 million. Michael is at the peak of his fame, and still lives in “Hayvenhurst”, the Jackson family home in Encino. Owning the ATV music catalog earns Michael a steady stream of royalties every time one of the songs is either played on the radio or performed.
1987:
Michael nets around $35 million from a year-long “Bad” tour. Heading into the 1990’s, Michael is believed to be in sound shape financially.
1988:
Michael makes his $17 million purchase of a property near Santa Ynez, California. This property soon becomes “Neverland”.
1991:
Michael signs a $65m recording deal with Sony. He releases “Dangerous” and retreats from working regularly.
1993:
Michael settles a child-molestation lawsuit for an undisclosed amount, said to be in the region of $20 million.
1995:
Michael is forced to sell Sony a 50 percent stake in the ATV catalog for more than $100 million, in order to help shore up his now-wobbling accounts. He releases HIStory; shoots a “teaser” video in Hungary for millions of dollars. Dan Beck, a senior marketing executive who worked on the video, says of Michael at this time, “He dreamed the big dream. It was P. T. Barnum.”
1996:
Michael meets Myung Ho Lee, a Korean adviser.
1997:
Michael embarks on a 35-minute film called “Ghosts” that he co-wrote with Stephen King and shot with Stan Winston, a special-effects whiz. The film cost that cost well above $15 million. At this time, Michael is believed to have paid a substantial portion of as much as $65 million on video projects.
1998:
Michael has already taken out and depleted a $90 million bank loan and Lee arranges a new, $140 million loan from the Bank of America that was collateralized by the ATV catalog and used to pay off earlier debts. Just several months later, the $140 million evaporates and Michael obtains another $30 million line of credit from the Bank of America.
1999:
According to Alvin Malnik, one of Michael’s advisers, Michael spends about $8 million annually on plane charters, antiques, paintings, hotel rooms, travel and other personal expenses, and that the annual upkeep for Neverland and its staff is about $4 million. Michael’s annual budget at this time includes about $7.5 million for personal expenses and $5 million to maintain Neverland. Malnik said that he had loaned Michael $7 million, part of which was used to settle various lawsuits related to deals gone wrong.
2000:
It’s speculated that that by this time, Michael’s biggest costs may have shifted away from his shopping sprees to simply having to deal with the enormous monthly interest payments on his debt.
Lee says that at this time, he raised the original $140 million bank loan to $200 million, using part of that loan to pay down the $30 million credit line, which had been entirely tapped.
2001:
Michael had used his half of ATV to secure a $200m loan from Bank of America. He releases ‘Invincible’ which is not a commercial success.
2003:
Fortress Investment Group, a New York-based investment group that specialises in distressed debt, buys Michael’s loans from the Bank of America after he misses some payments. It then begins levying high interest rates.
2005:
Michael is making monthly payments of about $4.5 million on $270 million in debt. This works out to an annual interest rate of about 20 percent. Michael faces the second child molestation allegations, for which he goes to trial and is acquitted. During the trial, one accountant testifies that Michael had an “ongoing cash crisis” and was spending $20m to $30m a year more than he earned.
December 20 – Fortress threatens to call its loan because of the allegations levelled against Michael. If Michael becomes insolvent, his 50 percent share of the $1 billion business that is ATV, would be up for grabs to the highest bidder. Sony executive Robert S. Wiesenthal proposes that Sony will help Michael find a bank to lend him more than $300 million to pay off his debts. In exchange, Michael will possibly forfeit a portion of his half of the ATV catalog. Sony arranges an extension with Fortress and brings in Citigroup and other potential lenders to arrange new financing at a lower rate.
2006:
Michael is forced to refinance the $200m loan from Bank of America to stave off bankruptcy.
February – At a meeting in London, Citigroup offers Michael a new loan with a 6 percent rate. Citigroup strikes the deal because Michael agrees to give Sony the right to buy half of his 50 percent stake in the ATV catalog at a future date for about $250 million, providing a backstop for Citigroup if Michael defaults.
Fortress then offers Michael the same terms — a testament to how desirable the ATV catalog has been and continues to be to the various financiers and advisers who have worked with Michael since he purchased it twenty years ago.
April – Still swamped in debt, with his musical career on hold and his personal life marred by scandal, Michael agrees to a financial overhaul. It is likely to strip him of about half of his remaining stake in the ATV catalog, which he has relied on as a financial lifeline for about a decade. According to executives involved in the restructuring talks, Michael used the catalog, as well as copyrights to his own songs, as collateral for roughly $270 million in bank loans he took out to fund expenses such as maintenance of Neverland.
By April, a final deal is in place. Citigroup ends up providing a $25 million mortgage on Neverland, most of which Michael used to buy back a 5 percent stake in the ATV catalog held by one of his early advisers, John Branca. By this time, Michael is working less and less.
May – Given the apparent precariousness of Michael’s financial situation , it is unclear how long he will be able to retain his remaining stake in the ATV catalog. June – Marc Schaffel, who formerly served as an adviser on Michael’s television projects, alleges in a lawsuit scheduled for trial in July that Michael failed to reimburse him for outlays of more than $2.2 million, much of it in cash.The Neverland’s value is assessed at $17,042,560. The land value is $6,898,858. Overall, the ranch has an improvement value of $11,034,702.
Hayvenhurst, the Jackson family home in Encino which Michael owns, carries a $4 million mortgage. It has an assessed value of $2.66 million and an improvement value of $2.3 million.
The state of California threatens to shut down both homes to employees when it emerges that Michael has fallen behind in insurance payments and salaries.
2007:
October– Michael defaults on a $23 million loan with Fortress Music Trust, doing business as DBCG LLC, a Delaware corporation. The holder puts him on notice. Michael is given has 90 days to pay the full amount — $23 million plus $212,963.83 in interest — or he will lose Neverland. The $20 million loan was secured against the deed of trust for Neverland and is separate from the $300 million loan secured by Jackson’s stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The papers filed are titled “Notice of Default and Election to Sell.”
Michael is also being sued in London for $7 million by his former patron, Prince Abdullah of Bahrain.
Michael admits in a sworn testimony to impairment due to prescription drug abuse. He is now living in Washington DC. Neverland stands vacant.
2008:
March – Michael faces foreclosure on Neverland. A real estate investment firm comes to his aid, setting up a joint venture with him to take ownership of the ranch.
April – Michael stops a public auction of his belongings including jewel-encrusted concert tickets, stage-wear and music memorabilia.
2009:
Michael is said to still be making an annual income of $19m. He has not released any new material since the album Invincible in 2001, which had not been a success, and has not performed live for over a decade. Michael announces a series of comeback shows called “This is It”, which are said to solve his financial crisis for good. It is estimated that he could make up to $500m if he takes the show around the world.
June – Earlier this month, the organisers of a proposed Jackson 5 reunion concert file a $40m claim against Michael. The New Jersey-based promoter AllGood Entertainment claims breach of contract and fraud, demanding $20m in compensatory damages and another $20m in punitive damages, claiming that Michael had promised not to perform solo ahead of a show scheduled for next year.
June 25 – Michael dies while preparing for a 50-night schedule of shows at London’s 02 Arena that were scheduled to begin in July. The concerts would have been Michael’s first since 2001. At the time of his death, he is said to have been facing continual rumours that he might file for bankruptcy.
Michael is believed to have died owing anything up to $500m.
it is believed that Sony Music Group, his most influential business partner and record label, will likely end up owning Michael’s share of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Sony/ATV owns 750,000 era-spanning hits and classics; its most prized asset is the song rights to most of the works of the Beatles, which Michael purchased on his own in 1985 for $47.5 million. In the 1990s, Sony/ATV might have been worth as much as $1.5 billion. It is believed that Michael’s share of the joint venture, in which both he and Sony once had equal stakes, may now be less than 25 percent.
In addition, the lucrative publishing catalog of Michael’s hits called “MiJac”, is also believed to be weighed down by massive loans. MiJac is administered by Warner Chappell, a division of Warner Music Group.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/business/yourmoney/14michael.html?pagewanted=5
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/p...208.php/Michael_Jacksons_running_out_of_money
http://www.newsweek.com/id/204011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/26/michael-jackson-finances-lost-fortune
What I would like to know is in this article it says:
link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/jun/15/michaeljacksontrial.popandrock
Hence the Waldorf Towers meeting, and its highly confidential outcome. A loan would be made to Jackson from Bank of America for $140m. It was to be secured against the star's most cherished asset - his half-ownership of the Sony/ATV music catalogue, a massive earner that includes control over 251 Beatles songs such as Yesterday and Hey Jude. The loan was the equivalent of at least seven years' income for Jackson at the time.
And yet, by the middle of the following year, his former business manager Myung Ho Lee would later claim, it had been depleted. It was increased to $200m. Jackson was clearly in trouble - and yet not in nearly so much trouble as he finds himself now, even though, two days ago, he was cleared of all child abuse charges in a California courtroom.
In one year, MJ needed to borrow 60 million? Not sure what year that was exactly.....
I think we need to explore who was responsible for MJ being blackballed - Bain talked about it in her Sister2sister article. People would not work with MJ in 2006-7. This directly affected his finances. Was this because of Trudy Green & Howard Kaufman? - Something was going on. Can't be because of unpopularity - he sold out 50 shows & according to Dileo, he could have sold out 85.
