Jackson, who died June 25 at age 50 in Los Angeles, owned 50 percent of Sony/ATV, which holds rights to more than 200 songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, as well Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond and others. His stake is worth about $1 billion, said Ivan Thornton, a private-wealth adviser who has worked with Jackson and his family.

Sony/ATV will continue to hold the Lennon and McCartney catalog, said the person, who asked not to be named because the matter isn’t public. The U.K.’s Daily Mirror reported in January that Jackson planned to leave the Beatles rights to McCartney in his will to heal a rift between the musicians. Jackson paid $47.5 million in 1985 to buy the ATV catalog, outbidding McCartney and Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono.

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In 1995, Jackson merged the ATV collection with Sony Corp.- owned recordings to create Sony/ATV, said Jimmy Asci, a Sony/ATV spokesman. In 2006, Jackson gave Sony an option to buy half of his 50 percent stake in Sony/ATV, allowing the singer to refinance $300 million of loans.