Kakao intends to sell Kakao Entertainment. This decision was made due to the stagnating IP conditions, making it difficult to receive proper corporate valuation to go public. Kakao Ent's current valuation is said to be around 11tr.
According to the Investment Banking industry, Kakao Ent sent a letter to major shareholders of Kakao Ent including Anchor Equity Partners, Saudi Arabia's Sovereign Wealth Fund, Singapore's GIC Private Limited, and others announcing its intention to sell.
Nov 13, 2024 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
According to the music industry, NewJeans members have sent a demand letter to Ador stating that Ador must meet their demands for corrective action including the reinstatement of former Ador CEO Min Heejin or they will file to terminate their exclusive contract.
The letter was sent under their real names, Kim Minji, Hanni Pham, Marsh Danielle, Kang Haerin, and Lee Hyein, and gives 14 days for Ador to address the demands. NewJeans says that Ador must address Hybe's intent to "throw NewJeans away and start new"
Nov 12, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Per DealSite, the low net profit comes from the decreased valuation of third party shares held by Hybe. The book value of Hybe's SM Ent shares has fallen from 193.3B at the beginning of 2024 to 177.9B at the end of the first half.
The share price of SM Ent was 93,3K on 2 Jan and has fallen 28.3% to 66,9K on 30 Sept. The equity value of Giant Step, which Hybe invested in to expand the game business, is also on a downward trend. Hybe invested 5.7B but at the end of the first half of 2024,
Nov 5, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
SM Ent 3Q 2024 Results:
OP: 13.3B (↓73.6%)
Revenue: 242.2B (↓9.0%)
Net Profit: 3.7B (↓95.6%)
Revenue was down due to decline in album sales and subsidiary sales.
Operating profit down to do decrease in subsidiary revenue and the cost of producing "Dear Alice", their British boy group show biz.chosun.com/industry/busin… and m.entertain.naver.com/article/079/00…
Nov 5, 2024 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Hybe 3Q 2024 Results:
OP: 54.2B (↓25.4%)
Revenue: 527.8B (↓1.9%)
Net Profit: 1.4B (↓98.6%)
Hybe says the 'green light' is turned on to achieve 2TR in sales for the 2nd consecutive year. Direct participation was 323B including album sales, performances and appearance fees
There was a large decline in album sales, streaming revenue (-18.8%) and performances (-14.8%) . Hybe attributes this to the delay in releases due to the Olympics. n.news.naver.com/mnews/article/…
Nov 1, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Hybe CEO Lee Jaesang issues an apology over the Hybe internal monitoring document that was revealed during the National Assembly Audit. He said the document was created as part of a process to gather various reactions and public opinions on industry trends and issues.
and that while it was intended to be shared only with a limited number of leaders to understand market and fan sentiments, the content was highly inappropriate. He acknowledged all the wrongdoings of the company and took responsibility
Nov 1, 2024 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
On 29 Oct, Seoul Central District Court dismissed former Ador CEO Min Heejin’s application for injunction against Hybe which asked that she be reappointed as Ador CEO. A dismissal means the court closes the case without a ruling on the merits.
Even if the injuction was granted, there would be no legal effect. (meaning the board could ignore the injunction) The court also said that the validty of the procure clause should be determined through trial in the main lawsuit and
Oct 27, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Lee Sooman, the founder of SM Ent, announced his return to the entertainment industry through a new agency. On 25 October, A20 Entertainment revealed "Rookies" video on Youtube, Weibo, and other SNS accounts.
A total of 15 trainees were divided by age and gender under names “Rookies HTG (High Teen Girls),” “Rookies LTG (Low Teen Girls),” and “Rookies LTB (Low Teen Boys)." In the video description, A2O used the term “Zalpha-Pop” instead of Kpop.
Oct 23, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Incheon Airport will designate a gate for celebrities. The corporation (that runs the airport) sent letters to entertainment agencies on Wednesday urging them to use the exclusive gate for departures. Incheon Airport says this is to minimize crowds and potential safety hazards
They are not constructing a new gate but will provide access to existing gates used by flight attendants and pilots.
Prosecutors seek a 4 year prison sentence for Cyber Terrorist Park. Park admitted to all charges at the hearing and even submitted a handwritten letter of apology saying she was deeply remorseful. Park has been charged with defamation and criminal insult.
Prosecutors have asked for a 4 year prison sentence and a 211M fine. Park is accused of criminal insult five times and uploading videos defaming celebrities with false facts. The prosecution asked the court to consider the facts that Park interfered with the
Aug 30, 2024 • 24 tweets • 5 min read
Update on the MHJ v Hybe situation. Since Ador announced that MHJ had stepped down as CEO, there have been a flurry of exchanges so I am doing a summary timeline.
~ July: Ador terminates the shareholder agreement with MHJ. Ador files a declaratory judgment lawsuit requesting the
court confirm their right to do so.
24 Aug: Ador Board notifies MHJ of a board meeting with a "change of CEO" on the agenda.
27 Aug: Ador Board meeting takes place with MHJ attending via video conference call. Terminates her as CEO.
Aug 8, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The prosecutors accuse Chairman Kim of instructing a group of executives to block Hybe's tender offer and acquire SM in a way that would not reveal Kakao's involvement. Following this directive, Kakao execs systematically mobilized large amounts of money to execute the crime of
market manipulation. It is alleged Kakao Group purchased SM shares with Kakao funds that had nothing to do with their entertainment business and should have been used to operate their affiliates.
Jul 23, 2024 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
TenAsia Exclusive: SM Ent hired a viral marketing team to spread negative opinion about Hybe on Korean platforms.
According to Telegram chat texts acquired by TenAsia, SM hired a PR company called Astraphe. SM and Astraphe opened a Telegram chat consisting of 6 people.
2 were SM employees, 1 was the head of Astraphe and the three others were employees of the viral company. Ostensibly, the contract between SM and PR firm Astraphe was to promote SM 3.0 on portal sites. The amount of the contract was 1.388M.
Jul 23, 2024 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Dispatch has an exclusive report with text messages and data from Source Music that the five members of NewJeans were selected by Source CEO Seo Seongjin with him personally convincing Hyein's parents to sign with Source Music.
Per the report, SSJ cast Kim Minji in 2018. In Nov 2019, he selected Pham Hanni through the Plus Gobble Audition. Kang Haerin was discovered on the street in Nov 2019. She was a trainee at another agency at the time. In Dec Haerin's mother contacted Source and Haerin signed with
Jul 6, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
On 4 Jul, Seoul Southern District Court's Criminal Division 15 heard testimony from head of Kakao Ent's investment strategy division, Lee Junho. When asked by the prosecutors whether former Kakao CEO Bae Jae-hyun tell OneAsia Chairman Ji Chang-bae
Ji Chang-bae to buy 100B in SM shares to thwart the Hive tender offer, Lee answered 'yes.' He also testified that "CEO Bae asked Chairman Ji if he could buy SM shares. Chairman Ji knew the purpose, cut right to the chase and after a bit Chairman Ji said he'd help."
Jul 3, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Yoon Seok-jun (also known as Lenzo Yoon) has returned to Korea with his family one and a half years after stepping down from his position as CEO of Hybe America. Since then he has not held any position within Hybe. Attention is focused on his next steps mk.co.kr/news/musics/11…
He resigned from Hybe America in January of last year. According to insiders, Yoon is under a non compete until the end of this year. Yoon joined BigHit Ent in 2010 as the strategic planning director.
May 31, 2024 • 27 tweets • 6 min read
As expected, there are many articles about the press conference. This is from Kookmin Ilbo and it is on their trending list with quite a few interactions. CEO of Ador, Min Heejin, held a second press conference on the 31 May and saidn.news.naver.com/article/005/00…
"I am relieved to have won the case" and "would like to thank those who supported me." Unlike her first press conference, CEO Min's mood was brighter. She even smiled while speaking. She started off thanking those who supported her. Her peers, people who sent her DMs,
May 29, 2024 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Chosun Biz: on 31 May, Ador will hold an EGM. Hybe intends to fire CEO Min and normalize management. In order to stop Hybe, CEO Min filed a lawsuit for a temporary injunction to ban Hybe from exercising its voting rights (to terminate her)
The results of the application for injunction are expected to be released today 30 May and even if the injunction is granted, it is expected that Hybe will have no trouble dismissing the two MHJ allies and appointing three Hybe directors. When this happens,
May 23, 2024 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
Ilgan Sports exclusively reports that Hybe’s CSO Lee Jae-sang, Hybe’s CHRO Kim Joo-young and Hybe’s CFO Lee Kyung-joon are among the leading candidates to be named as Ador board of directors at the upcoming extraordinary general meeting (EGM). The two agenda items for the meeting
are the dismissal of the three current board members and the re-appointment of new board members. Lee Jae-sang was proposed by Hybe for the SM board at the time of Hybe’s attempted acquisition of SM. CHRO Kim Joo-young is the first female head of human resources at Yuhan-kimberly
May 21, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Prosecutors charge 11 people including Mr Kim, former CEO of an entertainment agency, for illegal digital sajaegi. The prosecutors say that from December 2018 to December 2019, these 11 people were involved in illegally boosting streams.
They are accused of boosting streams of 15 songs 1,727,985 times using 500 virtual PCs, mass-purchased IPs, and 1,627 illegally obtained private information (I think this means music streaming IDs) m.entertain.naver.com/article/609/00…
May 20, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Kang Daniel files a criminal complaint against the majority shareholder of Konnect Ent for forgery, embezzlement, breach of trust, violation of information and communications network, computer use fraud, etc.
In Dec 2022, the majority shareholder signed a contract worth 10B
using Kang Daniel's name and the corporate seal without KD's knowledge or approval. Over 2B was withdrawn from company’s account without any proper procedures such as CEO approval, board resolutions, or shareholder meeting resolutions.
