It is incorrect to say that Michael Jackson "owns" all the Beatles songs, it is simply not the case. First of all, he never "owned" the songs, he simply owned a majority share of the company that owned the publishing rights to the Lennon/McCartney songs (Northern Songs Ltd.) Both Lennon (Yoko Ono, once John was killed) and McCartney owned minority shares in the company, but were unsuccessful in attempting to buy the majority stake in the company, once the main shareholder decided to sell. Jackson (acting on advice, ironically, from McCartney who had told him earlier that music publishing was a good investment) then outbid McCartney and Ono for the majority share.
McCartney and Ono still received royalty payments from the songs, they simply didn't own the publishing rights to them. However, by the early 90s Jackson ran into financial difficuly and sold his share to Sony.
Apple Corps, on the other hand, was the record company the Beatles created to release their albums from the White Album (1968) on. It also owns their intelectual property, likenesses, pictures, films, etc. It is not a pointless company like some people here claimed, but a legitimate holding company. Also, the idea that Apple Computer should "buy" Apple Corps is simply absurd. I assure you the holdings of Apple Corps are quite valuable, and I doubt you would find it an easy sell to McCartney and Yoko Ono, having been cheated out of Northern Songs Ltd.
Also, Apple Records didn't just release Beatles records either, it launched the career of many artists, including James Taylor and Badfinger.
(Sorry, just had to get that off my chest after reading the many erroneous posts in this thread.)
