The estates of Rodgers and Hammerstein, controlled by the famous songwriters’ daughters Mary Rodgers Guettel and Alice Hammerstein Mathias, have sold the duo’s song catalog and licensing rights to Imagem Music Group, an investment arm of a Netherlands-based pension fund. The catalog includes the songs from “South Pacific,” “The Sound of Music” and “Oklahoma!” The asking price is not currently known, but analysts place the value of the catalog at around $200 million.
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A source close to the family told The New York Post, “It’s more of an estate-planning thing than anything. [Mary and Alice] have a lot of grandchildren. It’s a decision that every [family] company has to face. Do you eventually pass control to a large number of [heirs] who may not necessarily be invested in the business?”
“I see musicals as a very big growth area for investment,” Imagem’s CEO Andre de Raaff told the New York Times.
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