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Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch sold at discount

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/afp/12/25/mk.jpg"/><figcaption> This file photo shows an aerial view of singer Michael Jackson&#x27;s Neverland Valley Ranch on June 25, 2001 in Santa Ynez, CA. Michael Jackson&#x27;s former Neverland Ranch in California has sold to US billionaire Ron Burkle, his spokesman said.<em> Agence France-Presse</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson&#x27;s former Neverland Ranch in California has sold to US billionaire Ron Burkle, his spokesman said Thursday, reportedly at a steeply discounted price of around $22 million.</p><p>The late &quot;King of Pop&quot; famously converted his sprawling, gated home into a fairytale-themed retreat -- complete with toy railroad, Ferris wheel and orangutans -- and penned some of his top hits on the ranch.</p><p>But Neverland was also the infamous location where Jackson invited children to visit and sleep over, and where he was accused of molesting young boys. It was rebranded after Jackson&#x27;s 2009 death as Sycamore Valley Ranch.</p><p>Burkle, a Montana-based businessman with investments ranging from supermarkets to the entertainment industry, purchased the ranch &quot;as a land banking opportunity,&quot; his spokesman told AFP.</p><p>The $22 million price tag reported by the Wall Street Journal -- and confirmed to AFP as roughly accurate, by a source familiar with the deal -- would mark a dramatic decline from the ranch&#x27;s $100 million asking price in 2015.</p><p>That lofty fee, dubbed &quot;optimistic&quot; by realtors even at the time, was slashed to $31 million last year, but the ranch still did not sell and was taken off the market.</p><p>Burkle was flying in the region recently to scout a neighboring property as a possible new branch of his Soho House private club network when he spotted the ranch and called its owner, according to the spokesman.</p><p>Jackson reportedly paid $19.5 million for the property in the 1980s.</p><p>Thomas Barrack Jr.&#x27;s Colony Capital investment firm purchased the ranch from the heavily indebted singer for $22.5 million the year before his death.</p><p>Burkle previously worked as an adviser for the singer on business matters, including resolving debts incurred by his lavish lifestyle in the years before his death.</p><p>The 2,700-acre (1,100-hectare) estate located 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Santa Barbara features a main house with six bedrooms along with three guest houses, a four-acre lake with a waterfall, tennis courts, several barns and animal shelter facilities.</p><p>Jackson&#x27;s ranch was raided in 2003 as part of a child molestation case against him and police at the time seized a large collection of pornography and images of nude children.</p><p>Jackson was acquitted in the case in 2005.</p><p>Last year, HBO documentary &quot;Leaving Neverland&quot; aired testimonies of two men who claim Jackson sexually abused them as children all over the ranch, including the attic, the master bedroom and the pool.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/02/22/19/michael-jackson-estate-sues-hbo-over-documentary">Michael Jackson estate sues HBO over documentary</a></li></ul><p>The Jackson estate -- which is suing HBO for $100 million over a &quot;posthumous character assassination&quot; -- denies all the allegations, as Jackson did in his lifetime. </p><div><strong>amz/acb</strong></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Gok7eXh0Rw?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's former Neverland Ranch in California has sold to US billionaire Ron Burkle, his spokesman said Thursday, reportedly at a steeply discounted price of around $22 million.</p>

LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's former Neverland Ranch in California has sold to US billionaire Ron Burkle, his spokesman said Thursday, reportedly at a steeply discounted price of around $22 million.