Death a lucrative career move for King of Pop

When Michael Jackson died he owed telephone company AT&T about US$1300 ($1835).

Now, as fans prepare to mark the first anniversary of his death on Friday, the money earned by his estate from mobile phone ringtones in the 12 months since his passing will top US$5 million.

Both these sums are piddling, in the wider scheme, but also telling.

Thanks to years of personal profligacy and mad-cap financial planning, the King of Pop died with debts of half a billion dollars. Hence the plans at the time to play 50 This Is It concerts in London last northern summer.

What is remarkable today, however, is that far from dimming in the shadow of the singer's death, Planet Jackson is spinning faster and brighter than ever.

That US$5 million from ringtones is a tiny fraction of the money now being made by his estate, which is managed by the performer's trusted lawyer, John Branca, and a friend and music industry fixture, John McClain.

How much cash is flowing is hard to measure.

In its analysis of the multiple deals negotiated over recent weeks and months, the Wall Street Journal reports that US$200 million has been generated, which has enabled the estate to settle all the debt (including that AT&T bill), leaving only one cloud - a US$300 million loan due at the end of this year.

This is good news for Jackson's three young children and his mother, who is responsible for them.

Most importantly, the foreclosure proceedings on the gated mansion house they call home in Encino, California, which were pending at the time of his death, have been averted.

Other creditors, not least the lawyer who defended Jackson at his 2005 child molestation trial, have also been paid.

Billboard magazine thinks the posthumous gusher is even stronger, suggesting that earnings since Jackson's death have topped US$1 billion.

The New York Daily News puts the amount generated at US$783 million.

Whatever the sum, it is clear that Jackson Inc is in far better financial shape now than it was when the singer was alive.

When Forbes magazine issues its next annual list of the world's "Top Earning Dead Celebrities" this October, it seems certain that Jackson will take the top spot, knocking Elvis Presley and Yves Saint-Laurent among others down a notch.

The cash is coming from several sources. Sony, his record label, reportedly did a deal in March worth US$250 million to the estate under which it will release dozens of previously unheard Jackson songs.

A first album is due out before Christmas. Sony also has the rights to develop a Jackson-themed stage production as well as video games.

Meanwhile, there was the windfall generated by the film of Jackson's final rehearsals before the London concert series that never happened.

Sony Pictures paid the estate US$60 million for the rights to the documentary, also called This is It.

The film took US$72 million in the United States and US$188 million overseas, of which US$56 million came from Japan alone, making it the world's most successful music concert film.

As well there is the surge in album sales after his death from medications-related cardiac arrest. Sony has sold 31.5 million Jackson albums worldwide.

Also helping refloat the bank account is the estate's 50 per cent ownership of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a bulging catalogue which controls the rights to 251 Beatles songs.

The estate should shortly be collecting US$11 million in dividends from that holding.

But herein lurks the snag of that one large outstanding loan.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony helped set the loan up with Barclays four years ago. It was guaranteed by Jackson's 50 per cent ownership of the Beatles catalogue.

If the estate cannot find a way to refinance or settle the loan before it comes due, Sony has the right to buy that half-share from the estate for a fire-sale price.

But one year after the singer's death, the chaos of his finances seems largely to have been resolved and the wilder elements of his image have begun to fade into the background leaving an earning power that is greater than anyone could have expected.

- INDEPENDENT