A press-release from EPE to controll the latest rumours:
Last week, Woody Baird, Memphis bureau chief for The Associated Press (AP), filed his annual Elvis Week preview story (reprinted at the bottom of this page). As usually happens, his article was picked up by print and television news outlets everywhere. A focus of this year's article was to indicate how Elvis fans would not notice any changes to Elvis Week as a result of the new ownership structure of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. (EPE), which was announced in December 2004 and went into effect in February 2005. The article spoke of some concerns fans might have as the first Elvis Week to take place since then approaches. Elvis Week is the annual Memphis gathering of fans participating in dozens of events in celebration of Elvis Presley. Elvis Week 2005 runs August 8-16.
Mr. Baird's article restated the particulars of the deal in which Lisa Marie Presley, in February 2005, sold an 85% interest in the company Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. to Robert F.X. Sillerman's company, now known as CKX, Inc. Although the article clearly reiterates that Lisa retained sole ownership of Graceland Mansion and her father's personal effects, the inclusion of the sentence "Lisa Marie Presley has sold the business side of her father's estate and turned over his famous, white-columned house to CKX Inc.," in the story has caused some confusion. The mention of Graceland Mansion refers to operations of the Graceland tour business and not ownership of the mansion property itself. Some fans and press misunderstood this to mean Lisa has now sold Graceland Mansion. She has not.
Mr. Baird's article was accurate, although that one sentence got a lot of attention from fans who did not read the story carefully, or perhaps saw an edited down or even mangled version of the story. Some newspapers or TV news programs that carried the story in its entirety or in part chose to create their own headlines, some of them misleading or inaccurate. Some of the headlines used the term "Graceland's new owner" or something to that effect. All this coupled with the fact that the article was picked up by so many media outlets made it seem as if there was a new announcement regarding the structure of EPE and the ownership of Graceland Mansion. There was not. The structure of EPE and the ownership of Graceland Mansion remain just as described in the Frequently Asked Questions item we posted on our site months ago.