Julian Lennon sells stake in Beatles songs: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Julian Lennon, the 44-year-old elder son of John Lennon, has sold a financial stake in his late father's compositions for the Beatles to Primary Wave Music Publishing, a year-old New York City concern, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The deal is to be announced on Friday, the Journal said.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, the Journal said. But it quoted the parties as saying in a statement that the share of the catalog was "significant."

The deal relates to the songwriting income generated by the compositions, as opposed to the publishing rights. The rights to most of the compositions John Lennon wrote with Paul McCartney are owned by Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

Primary Wave last year paid an estimated $50 million for a 50 percent stake in the music-publishing catalog of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, which it bought from his widow, Courtney Love.

Reuters