Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch has sold to a billionaire for $22m (£16m), which is $78m (£57m) less than its 2016 asking price. (independent)
The 2,700-acre property in Los Olivos, near Santa Barbara, was bought by Ronald Burkle, a billionaire businessman specialising in the mergers and acquisitions of US supermarkets.
Burkle paid $22m (£16m) for the property, The Wall Street Journal reports, which is significantly less than previous asking prices for the ranch.
In 2016, Neverland Ranch was put up for sale for $100m ($73m). A year later, its price had dropped to $67m (£49m). In 2019, the asking price had fallen even further to $31m (£22m).
Burkle reportedly views the ranch as a “land banking opportunity”, having chosen not to open up a new branch of the private members club Soho House near an adjoining lake to the ranch.
A statue of Michael Jackson was removed from the National Football Museum in Manchester, England, on Thursday (March 7) following the release of Leaving Neverland.
The bombshell documentary, which was released in two parts on HBO, details the allegations of Wade Robson and James Safechuck that the late King of Pop sexually abused each of them for years when they were children at his sprawling Neverland Ranch in California.
In the wake of HBO’s Leaving Neverland documentary focusing on child-molestation accusations against pop star Michael Jackson, some radio stations have begun to remove the artist's songs from rotation. On Monday, three Canadian stations pulled the plug on MJ after the controversial series aired over the weekend. Now, two New Zealand stations have followed suit.
MediaWorks and NZME have said they will not play Jackson’s songs at this time.
The film has struck a chord due to graphic accusations by two men -- Wade Robson and James Safechuck -- who detail the abuse they reportedly suffered while spending time at Jackson’s Neverland ranch as children in the '90s.
Three major radio stations in Montreal have pulled Michael Jackson’s music from airplay in the wake of the blockbuster HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland,” in which two men accuse the late singer of sexually abusing them when they were children. The news was first reported in The Canadian Press.
