Disruptive Genius

Michael Jackson, Inc: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire – Zack O’Malley Greenberg (Atria Books)

Before the likes of Russell Simmons, P-Diddy and Jay Z ever came along to build empires based not only on their music business savvy; spinning of wide ranging and diverse business empires there was there was Michael Jackson.

Forbes Magazine senior editor, Zack O’Malley Greenburg tracks Jackson’s musical genius, which spawned his business genius, from the beginning days of his career in Gary, Indiana; being managed by the Jackson family’s hard-nosed patriarch, Joe Jackson, and the start of the Jackson 5. Michael Jackson, Inc: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire takes us forward through his meteoric solo/business career, his financial downfall and his after death, rebirth of the Jackson empire.

Greenburg recounts the King of Pop’s financial downfall, which can be tied to legal troubles and confrontations with the likes of slimy “journalists” like Martin Bashir who focused on Jackson’s at times less than stellar life choices. While his undeniable musical genius could not always over-shadow the ills and allegations that Jackson faced during his period of financial and personal difficulty, his untimely passing could.

 

While so may find it hard to comprehend, Greenburg recounts that since his death five years ago, the Jackson estate has generated nearly half of his life time career earnings, which exceed one billion dollars.

With the current and future projects on the drawing board it is easy to speculate that Michael Jackson, Inc, will easily and quickly usurp that figure within the next few years. Without new personal foibles to derail any progress and his popularity still intact, the Jackson estate is on stable footing to continue that rapid growth position.