Chapter 312: Being Black is the Original Sin

In Irvine and Newport Beach, Arthur represented Galaxy and John Malone represented Liberty Media to jointly form the Starz Pay TV Channel.

Each party held a 50% share. The studio for the TV station was chosen to be in the Newport area because Arthur owned 3,000 acres of land there.

"This place will serve as the headquarters of the TV station, but there will also be a production center affiliated with the TV station at Galaxy's headquarters in Glendale. Galaxy's USA Network headquarters is also located there," Arthur detailed the future plans to John Malone.

Given the importance of Galaxy Games, the Irvine area was indispensable to the Galaxy Group.

John Malone had no objections. "The pay channel needs premium series to support it. In terms of content, we'll have to rely on Galaxy TV!"

"Rest assured," Arthur extended his hand to John Malone, "Starz TV will definitely surpass HBO to become the king of pay channels."

On the way back to Los Angeles, Arthur was in a car with one of his economic advisors, Emily Shear. She handed Arthur a document. "The one blocking us from building a new sports arena downtown is Eli Broad's KB Home Group, a West Coast real estate mogul. Eli Broad has a Sun Asset Management Group and has dealings with many council members in the Greater Los Angeles area.

However, based on our investigation, the man behind the scenes is Donald Bren. Recently, he sold his shares in the Irvine Company and made big moves into property projects in Koreatown and South Central Los Angeles."

"Eli Broad, Donald Bren, very interesting," Arthur certainly memorized these names.

"Additionally, Mr. Jim Colt acquired an undefined percentage of shares in Occidental Petroleum on behalf of California Pacific Investment Company, investing $30 million," Emily Shear continued.

Arthur nodded. Anyway, these were profits reaped from the Koreatown project.

Additionally, Occidental Petroleum is also a local Los Angeles energy company. Last time, Governor Pete Wilson hoped Arthur could support this company.

In the evening, at a bar near Malibu's Latigo Beach, Jennifer Connelly, who had just finished filming Addams Family Values, and Arthur were relaxing.

The bar's TV was broadcasting the latest developments in the Michael Jackson case!

"Michael Jackson is in big trouble this time," the news reported that Michael Jackson had been required to undergo a nude inspection for half an hour, leaving him exhausted.

Jennifer Connelly remarked, "This probably has to do with Michael's mental age. He is relatively simple-minded and can be said to be psychologically immature. From a psychological perspective, Michael rejects adult roles and dislikes adult society. That's why he prefers to bond with kids and even acts recklessly for them."

Arthur was stunned for a moment. "Do you have to sound so professional?" He glanced at Jennifer Connelly beside him and said, "Perhaps it's related to his family issues in childhood. Since he didn't have a happy childhood, he now has an even more urgent desire to recapture that innocence."

Jennifer Connelly smiled and kissed Arthur on the cheek. "That's about right, which means Michael is being exploited.

Most of us particularly values personal privacy. An adult who isn't a blood relative living and eating with children will naturally draw controversy, let alone Michael, who is a celebrity.

So, Michael didn't consider the consequences. His thoughts are simple, and he might be a bit naive, making him an easy target for exploitation."

Those driven by greed exploited Michael Jackson's kindness and innocence, but with Michael Jackson's current status and identity, an ordinary case wouldn't have such a significant impact.

Clearly, someone was pushing behind the scenes.

Michael Jackson's record company, Sony Music, had substantial issues and was using contracts to pressure him to settle the matter quickly.

Now, Michael Jackson had been forced to halt his concerts, deal with all sorts of ad compensations, and his financial situation was suffering. The valuable asset he had left was the ATV Music Publishing company.

Unsurprisingly, Sony Music would soon cooperate with Michael Jackson to form Sony/ATV Music Publishing, providing him with $100 million in cash in the process.

Why? Because the 4,000-plus song catalog in ATV was incredibly valuable!

A black man holding such financial power was the original sin, and Michael Jackson couldn't see this clearly at all.

"Arthur, do you have any thoughts? Galaxy Records might be able to support him," Jennifer Connelly understood Arthur well.

Arthur chuckled, "How to support him? He has a sky-high contract with Sony, and after what happened, he's certainly exhausted both mentally and physically.

This will have a severe impact on his future career. Everyone has their eyes on ATV Music Publishing. Do you think I can compete with the big five record companies?"

Come on, Galaxy Records is just a new company making waves on the West Coast rap scene.

Relying purely on funds? The base value of ATV Music Publishing is at least $200 million, but if you want to buy it at that price, don't even think about it.

You should know, in a previous life, Sony acquired half the shares through forming a joint-venture publishing company, paying $100 million, and it wasn't until several years after Jackson's death that they fully acquired the other half from Jackson's estate.

In the record market, Galaxy had no advantage. If it were a film company, Arthur would undoubtedly have the capital to name his price regardless of the company.

"There's news that Jackson's side is negotiating an out-of-court settlement with the Chandler family," Jennifer Connelly reminded him.

"Paying for peace, but it's obviously a blackmail," Arthur shook his head.

Arthur and Michael Jackson were just ordinary friends, so he wouldn't advise him to settle out of court. Jackson's team had its considerations.

"If there's no out-of-court settlement, this lawsuit could drag on for quite some time," Jennifer Connelly knew well that in such cases, it often ended with paying for peace.

However, in Michael Jackson's case, he was completely wronged. Other celebrities paid for peace because they genuinely had issues.

If Michael Jackson couldn't work properly for two or three years and had to face endless investigations and evidence-gathering, the losses would be enormous!

Arthur pondered whether he could persuade Michael Jackson to sell ATV to him, as long as he didn't shout out an outrageous price.

*****

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