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As Michael Jackson fans mourn the first anniversary of his death tomorrow, the late singer's estate and his record label Sony Music are looking at an extraordinary cash windfall.
Sales of Jackson's music and merchandise have generated $200 million (£135 million) in revenue, helping to pay off tens of millions of dollars in debts.
The singer's estate has collected as much as $125 million in royalties and advances from Sony, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Jackson was responsible for a string of hit albums including Thriller, Bad and Off The Wall. Already in the past 12 months at least 31.5 million of them have been sold. Sony will release another album of previously unheard Jackson material in November.
The label has also paid $60 million for the rights to a documentary, This Is It, about Jackson's concert tour for which he was rehearsing when he died.
The windfall has been crucial as Jackson died with debts of up to $500 million, which includes a loan of $300 million due to be repaid at the end of this year.
The beneficiaries of the estate are his 80-year-old mother Katherine and his three children. The late singer's lawyer, John Branca, and another long-time friend, John McClain, are credited with managing the estate in a highly commercial manner.
They must still resolve the future of the estate's stake in music publishing company Sony/ATV, which owns 251 Beatles songs.
When Jackson was struggling with his finances in 2006, he gave Sony an option to buy half of his stake at a fixed price of $250 million. Sony/ATV could now be worth $2 billion.
