Berry Gordy III, known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is an American retired record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer, and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.

As a songwriter, he composed or co-composed several hits including “Lonely Teardrops” and “That’s Why” (Jackie Wilson), “Shop Around” (The Miracles), and “Do You Love Me” (The Contours), all of which topped the US R&B charts, as well as the international hit “Reet Petite” (Jackie Wilson).

How much did Berry Gordy sell Motown for?

Gordy sold his interests in Motown Records to MCA and Boston Ventures on June 28, 1988, for $61 million. He later sold most of his interests in Jobete publishing to EMI Publishing. Gordy wrote or co-wrote 240 of the approximately 15,000 songs in Motown’s Jobete music catalog. However, the true test of the label’s worth would come a few years later, when Polygram paid over $330 million for the Motown catalog.