Michael Jackson

Rather than going to court to fight it out, R&B/Pop superstar Michael Jackson reached a settlement on Monday over a breach-of-contract claim by Prescient Capital. The New Jersey based financial company sued Jackson in 2005 for $48 million claiming the pop star failed to pay for services that resulted in a $272 million bank loan being refinanced and $573 million in financing used to purchase the complete rights to the Beatles’ song catalog from Sony Corp. Sony/ATV, the world's fourth-largest music publisher, is jointly owned by MJ Publishing Trust and Sony Corp. Among its valuable catalog of songs are most of the hit songs of the Beatles, songs penned by Jackson himself, and the recently acquired Eminem catalog. A spokesman for Jackson told Reuters the settlement means that both the Beatles and Jackson's song and others in the library are "safe and sound." The case was to be heard in U.S. District Court in Manhattan with jury selection set to begin just before Jackson’s lawyers reached an agreement with Prescient Acquisition. Neither side revealed the terms of the settlement.