egafd.com

She says ?825m as do most media. He says he's worth half that. I think he's estimated at ?825m+ in The Rich List, but thats an estimate and no accounts are forthcoming, so............is he canny and has a stash off-shore? Is the fortune in property and other portfolio's?
Whilst he was stupid enough NOT to get a pre-nup, at least his accountants will get a nice end of tax year bonus for keeping a lid on what he's got.
Personally, I thought he was worth at least ?1bn considering the Beatles royalties, selling the songs to kiddie fiddler Jacko, constant re-releases on new formats, the new iTunes will rake him in a few bob as well.
Overall, I don't give a shit what he's worth, but Heather would like to know.......as will the taxman after all this!!

Dont forget he has about 3 or 4 houses abroad and i bet hes stashed money in Swiss bank accounts or off shore etc.

re: Jacko buying the back catalogue.

I thought that what had happend was they were "owned" by the/a record company and when they came up what is normally done with a nod and a wink is they are left free so the original artist can buy/register them, all gentlemans agreement and the like. Jacko however jumped in and brought them before Paul could register his own interest.

Either way, Lenon and McCartney would still get royalties just not have the right to sell the usage of the songs to anyone who wanted to purchase the rights.

As for the rest of the royalties, don't forget that it is devided between the estates of all the people involved in writing and scoring each song and/or the original record label depending on the terms first agreed (although I seem to recall a lot of artists going to court to get better terms from the record lables than first agreed back in the 60s/70s)

Jon Xx

Ok...

The Beatles' original sound recordings are owned by EMI; the right to release those recordings is owned by Apple Corps Ltd. EMI can do nothing with the recordings without Apple Corps consent.

The publishing rights are owned by Northern Songs Ltd. Northern was, for reasons I won't bore you with, a public company in which Lennon and McCartney held minority stakes.

Unknown to Lennon, McCartney was buying shares in Northern from as early as 1965. This created problems when Lew Grade's ATV launched a hostile takeover for Northern in 1969. Lennon and McCartney both vowed to fight the takeover but lost. When Lennon found out that Macca would get more money than him.....the first big crack in the Beatles appeared.

Macca took the cash- millions in 1969; Lennon took ATV loan stock which he cashed in in 1974.

When Lew Grade was forced out of ATV in 1982, the company was broken up or sold off- ATV Network became Central TV. All that was left was ATV Music Corporation.

ATV offered it to Yoko and Macca in 1985. Macca decided to outwit Yoko by bringing his new mate Michael Jackson in to co-fund it. Jackson- a clever and scheming man as we can deduce from events of the last few years- decided to double-cross Macca and buy it for himself.

That was fine whilst he had money coming in. But with money drying up, he sold half of ATV Music to Sony, his then record company. It was renamed Sony/ATV Publishing. He later gave Sony an option to buy the remaining half for a low fixed price; they exercised this by taking over the debt threatening to make him bankrupt the other year. The exercise date is this year or next, upon which it will probably all be renamed Sony/BMG Publishing.

He could of course be utilising the age old adage of being economical with the truth.