IS IT TIME TUPAC IT IN?
A new scramble is on to buy the assets of bankrupt rap label Death Row Records, after trustees for the estate on Friday terminated a $24 million deal to sell the catalog to New York-incorporated Global Music Group Inc.
Trustees representing Death Row Records and its founder Marion “Suge” Knight Jr. voided the deal after Global Music, headed by Susan Berg, failed to come up with the money to purchase the label’s copyrights and artist contracts two months after wining the bid, according to court papers.
Global Music’s bankruptcy lawyer Kathleen March insisted yesterday that the estate’s move is merely a negotiating tactic and the company still plans to close the transaction within a few weeks. She said Global Music has lined up an as-yet-unnamed publicly traded company to fund the $22 million it still owes for Death Row.
Global Music is blaming the delay in securing funding on a fight with a rival investor group, which made a failed legal effort to muscle in on its claim on the Death Row assets. The rival group is also named Global Music, but incorporated in Delaware, and backed by Ronald Goldberg of New York-based hedge fund Alliance Capital.
The fight, as outlined in court papers, included claims of double crossing and alleged death threats against Anthony Marotta, Global Music New York’s original owner. He was talking to Alliance about teaming up to buy Death Row before selling to Berg’s firm RSB Investment Strategies in June 2008.
In a complaint for declaratory and injunctive release filed Friday, the Death Row and Knight estates asked the court to declare that they are free to shop the catalog, which contains works by seminal gangster rapper Tupac Shakur and others, to other interested parties.
The estate and Global Music New York have already been butting heads over the issue. Both parties attempted to pull in an investor group headed by representatives for actor/singer Jamie Foxx, according to court papers.
Global Music claims it approached the Foxx group about bankrolling the balance of the money only to see the deal sour after the estate then independently approached them about selling the assets directly to them. Those talks subsequently fell apart and Global Music threatened to sue the estate for breach of contract.
Meanwhile, Michael Collesano, a lawyer representing Global Music Group of Delaware told The Post yesterday that his client is in the midst of re-approaching the estate about a deal to buy the assets in the wake of the termination of the deal with Global Music New York.
Knight and Death Row filed for bankruptcy in April 2006, listing $137 million in debt and just $4.4 million in assets.