Primary Wave has acquired copyrights to hit Whitney Houston songs as part of a deal for about 60 songs written by songwriters Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill, of American pop-music duo Boy Meets Girl.<\/p>\n
That’s according to the Financial Times<\/em>, which, citing people familiar with the matter, reports that the deal is estimated to be worth between $50 million and $100 million.<\/p>\n Included in Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill’s\u00a0catalog are two of Houston\u2019s biggest hits: How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),<\/em> according to the FT’s<\/em> report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Primary Wave Chief Executive Larry Mestel is quoted by the FT<\/em> as saying that \u201cIt\u2019s one of the larger acquisitions we have done.\u201d<\/p>\n Terms of the deal were not disclosed.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n The purchase of rights to Houston\u2019s hit songs as part of Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill’s catalog follows Primary Wave’s $2 billion deal with financial giant Brookfield last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n The deal included the acquisition of a minority stake in Primary Wave and Brookfield investing $1.7 billion into a new \u201cpermanent capital vehicle\u201d.<\/p>\n As MBW<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a> last month, Primary Wave still has a little over $1 billion<\/strong> in unspent Brookfield investment after an initial $700 million was spent acquiring some rights from Primary Wave\u2019s Fund 1<\/a> and Fund 2.<\/a><\/p>\n (Fund 3<\/strong>\u00a0was\u00a0born in 2021<\/a>. MBW\u2019s sources suggest it was backed with\u00a0$800 million<\/strong> in capital. The launch of Fund 3 coincided with a $375 million<\/strong>\u00a0investment into Primary Wave by Oaktree Capital.)<\/p>\n The new \u201cpermanent capital vehicle\u201d is essentially a fourth fund \u2013 in which Primary Wave itself is a minority owner.<\/p>\n The Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill deal means\u00a0that Primary Wave has acquired even more control of the Whitney Houston catalog, after it acquired<\/a> a 50% stake in Houston\u2019s estate in 2019.<\/p>\n As part of that<\/em> deal, Primary Wave acquired a stake in the singer\u2019s music assets, including royalty streams from her hit songs Count On Me <\/em>from the film Waiting To Exhale, I Didn\u2019t Know My Own Strength, I Got You, Like I Never Left <\/em>and others.<\/p>\n According to the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>,<\/em> Primary Wave also acquired 50% of the Houston Estate\u2019s assets as part of that previous deal \u2013 including music and film royalties, merch and rights to her name and likeness<\/p>\n Primary Wave has produced a Whitney Houston biopic to be released in December entitled I Wanna Dance With Somebody<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i>\u00a0produced<\/a> in partnership with Sony\u2019s TriStar.<\/p>\n Speaking about the film with MBW last month, Mestel, who is a co-producer alongside the likes of Clive Davis, said that \u201cIt\u2019s going to be incredible.”<\/p>\n Added Mestel of the film: \u201cI think as a result you\u2019re going to see a very significant jump in Whitney\u2019s brand, in streams of her catalog in general \u2013 and in people\u2019s introduction and re-introduction to a legend.\u201d<\/p>\n Brookfield\u2019s foray into the song-buying market comes as music streaming platforms like Spotify boost royalty payments for rights holders, making the music industry more appealing to traditional institutional investors.<\/p>\n
\n