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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Jackson Feeling Squeeze
Aired November 20, 2003 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business." We're going to start with the potential financial problems that Michael Jackson may incur as a result of his latest run-in with the authorities.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's right, Jack. A lot of unknowns about Michael Jackson's financial situation, all kinds of rumors, stories, reports. Here's what we do know about Michael Jackson. Basically, let's talk about this in terms of a family's finances. There is less money coming in and more money going out. In other words, his revenue stream from his career is diminishing, and his expenses in terms of legal is going up, up, up.
Let's talk about the good times first, though, because obviously the king of pop had a lot of earnings power early on in his career, particularly going back into the 1980s. In 1982, "Thriller," for instance, sold 46 million copies, the biggest-selling album of all time, "Dangerous," "Bad," there's 30 million and 30 million. He purchased the Neverland Ranch for $28 million. Today, it may be worth about half that.
There are press reports recently that he gave tours of Neverland, charging a whole bunch of money, maybe got a couple million dollars out of that. That was over the summer.
Now, what's been going on recently, though -- the trying times of Michael Jackson. His new "Invincible" album sold just two million copies. The single, "One More Chance," hasn't made the billboard top 100. And CBS, of course, postponed that Michael Jackson, No. 1. CBS is having a tough time, because, of course, they postponed the Reagan program.
CAFFERTY: Yes, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: ... he's on suicide watch over there with the Reagan...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Absolutely. And then, you talk about other stuff going on, Jack, pawning million-dollar watches to pay the lawyers. Also, the Beatles catalog, which he owns, that's been a tremendous winner for him. On the other hand, he has pledged that to Sony. Sony basically owns the thing. He owes the Bank of America, reportedly owes the bank $200 million. CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: I wonder who the guy at bank who loaned him $200 million is doing right about now.
So, you know, when your career goes into a tailspin like this, it's tough on the pocketbook.
CAFFERTY: What about the markets? The futures much higher before those bombs went off in Istanbul this morning.
SERWER: And predictably very unnerved by that.
CAFFERTY: Sure.
SERWER: The futures have sank. Yesterday, though, of course, was a good day. We've bucked the trend, and the Dow is up about, what, about 66 points here. A nice day, but I don't think we're going to have a nice start to trading this morning with the bombings, Jack.
CAFFERTY: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired November 20, 2003 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business." We're going to start with the potential financial problems that Michael Jackson may incur as a result of his latest run-in with the authorities.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's right, Jack. A lot of unknowns about Michael Jackson's financial situation, all kinds of rumors, stories, reports. Here's what we do know about Michael Jackson. Basically, let's talk about this in terms of a family's finances. There is less money coming in and more money going out. In other words, his revenue stream from his career is diminishing, and his expenses in terms of legal is going up, up, up.
Let's talk about the good times first, though, because obviously the king of pop had a lot of earnings power early on in his career, particularly going back into the 1980s. In 1982, "Thriller," for instance, sold 46 million copies, the biggest-selling album of all time, "Dangerous," "Bad," there's 30 million and 30 million. He purchased the Neverland Ranch for $28 million. Today, it may be worth about half that.
There are press reports recently that he gave tours of Neverland, charging a whole bunch of money, maybe got a couple million dollars out of that. That was over the summer.
Now, what's been going on recently, though -- the trying times of Michael Jackson. His new "Invincible" album sold just two million copies. The single, "One More Chance," hasn't made the billboard top 100. And CBS, of course, postponed that Michael Jackson, No. 1. CBS is having a tough time, because, of course, they postponed the Reagan program.
CAFFERTY: Yes, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: ... he's on suicide watch over there with the Reagan...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Absolutely. And then, you talk about other stuff going on, Jack, pawning million-dollar watches to pay the lawyers. Also, the Beatles catalog, which he owns, that's been a tremendous winner for him. On the other hand, he has pledged that to Sony. Sony basically owns the thing. He owes the Bank of America, reportedly owes the bank $200 million. CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: I wonder who the guy at bank who loaned him $200 million is doing right about now.
So, you know, when your career goes into a tailspin like this, it's tough on the pocketbook.
CAFFERTY: What about the markets? The futures much higher before those bombs went off in Istanbul this morning.
SERWER: And predictably very unnerved by that.
CAFFERTY: Sure.
SERWER: The futures have sank. Yesterday, though, of course, was a good day. We've bucked the trend, and the Dow is up about, what, about 66 points here. A nice day, but I don't think we're going to have a nice start to trading this morning with the bombings, Jack.
CAFFERTY: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
