He outbid
Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono at auction and acquired ATV Music Publishing for $47.5 million, a company controlling the rights to
The Beatles' catalog. The catalog contained the rights to more than 4,000 songs, approximately 250 of which were Beatles compositions. Three years after their collaboration on “The Girl Is Mine”, Paul McCartney recommended that Jackson invest in music publishing rights. McCartney had previously negotiated with Yoko Ono, who withdrew from the deal for “astrological” reasons. The investment proved highly profitable but permanently damaged the friendship between Jackson and McCartney.