Love sells Nirvana stake

Weeks after announcing that she was looking to sell off a portion of the rights to the Nirvana catalog, Courtney Love has closed a deal with Primary Wave Music Publishing, a company led by former Virgin Records head Larry Mestel. According to RollingStone.com, Love sold 25 percent of her stake in the catalog that she inherited following the 1994 death of her husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Love explained, "The affairs of Nirvana are so massive and so huge, and they've all fallen on my lap. I own almost all of (the publishing)...and it proved to be too much for me. I needed a partner to take Kurt Cobain's songs and bring them into the future and into the next generation. And (Mestel's) the guy to do it."

Mestel commented, "(Cobain was) one of the most important songwriters of his time...I felt the combination of Courtney's creativity and the things I can add can really help in creating more value for these copyrights."

Exact figures were not made public, but Primary Wave reportedly paid $50 million for the rights.

A company in which U2 singer Bono is one of the partners was also rumored to have made a bid for the Nirvana catalog.

Love said that the catalog will be used in a "tasteful" manner, but that the new deal will also take Nirvana's music "places it's never been before."
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