Pop impresario Fuller sells empire for £100m

Simon Fuller, the pop impresario who launched the careers of the Spice Girls and invented Pop Idol, making millions of pounds in the process, made another £100m yesterday when he sold his business empire.

Simon Fuller, the pop impresario who launched the careers of the Spice Girls and invented Pop Idol, making millions of pounds in the process, made another £100m yesterday when he sold his business empire.

Fuller's 19 Entertainment, which also represents the commercial interests of David and Victoria Beckham, has been bought by US company CKX.

But critics of Fuller's carefully crafted, heavily marketed and hugely successful pop creations should put celebrations on hold. The 44-year-old pop Svengali is not retiring just yet - if anything the deal may enhance his influence on the global pop market.

CKX, which owns the rights to Elvis Presley's estate, said Fuller would be a "partner" under the deal which will see him receive £64.5m in cash and a further £19.2m in cash or shares. He will become a director of CKX while retaining control of 19 Entertainment and its subsidiaries.

Fuller began his career with Chrysalis Records, where he was an A&R scout before leaving to set up his own business. He named his company after his first hit, Paul Hardcastle's 1985 anti Vietnam song "19", which reached number one in the charts in 1985.

He discovered Cathy Dennis, singing in a nightclub in Norwich when she was 16, helping her on her way to a string of hits in the 1980s and a subsequent career as a songwriter - she penned Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head".

He propelled the Spice Girls to global fame before they unceremoniously sacked him 18 months after their first hit "Wannabe", which reached number one in 36 countries. After a rare flop with 21st Century Girls, who were billed as a "female Slade for the millennium", he struck chart gold again with S Club 7, who had 11 top-five hits, their own TV series and spawned a teenypop version S Club Juniors.

"My business is creating fame and celebrity and I'm one of the best in the world," he said. "I know it to the finest detail."

Given his knack for turning unknowns into household names, it was fitting that his greatest commercial success arrived in the form of a reinvented version of the classic talent show. Pop Idol might have struggled to produce many enduring stars but it was a ratings winner. The format has been sold to 35 countries and the US version, American Idol, is hugely popular, something which may have attracted CKX to the commercial possibilities of a deal. But he has recently been active in the US, developing scripts for a new blue-collar TV drama with Tony Jordan, a top writer for EastEnders, for Fox TV.

Paul Scaife, publisher of leading music industry newsletter Record of the Day, said the deal was a strategic move. He said: "This is all about Fuller's global ambitions to take his brands such as Pop Idol and the Beckhams to a world stage and a larger audience. If you have a bigger distribution network to plug into that makes you very powerful. I wouldn't write manufactured music off yet. While some of the Pop Idol winners such as Michelle McManus have only had one hit, if it's done right they can cross over to become more credible, like Will Young."

Despite the phenomenal success of his artists and the extensive media coverage some of his acts have achieved, Fuller shuns the limelight, dividing his time between a 16th-century manor house in Sussex and homes in France and Los Angeles, travelling between them by private jet.

Fuller, whose personal fortune is said to exceed £220m and who paid himself £4m last year, said: "This is a hugely exciting new partnership for myself and 19 Entertainment.

"CKX will provide 19 Entertainment with a powerful platform for global growth and allow us to fully take advantage of all the amazing opportunities that lie ahead. I cannot wait to get started."