Lee Sung Soo’s video against Lee Soo Man made these turning points in SM Entertainment Dispute, aespa’s music, HYBE’s response...Read 'em all here

The SM Entertainment dispute between Lee Soo Man, Chris Lee, HYBE, Kakao Entertainment and CJ ENM, is seeing a lot of new updates.

The CEO of SM Entertainment, Lee Sung Soo released a video on his personal YouTube channel on February 16, talking about the dispute over the company’s shares and sharing what he thought of the tag game that is currently ongoing between the two sides. Ironically, Lee Sung Soo or Chris Lee is the nephew of Lee Soo Man and was made CEO in March 2020 after initially serving as a general director of music production and CEO of SM Entertainment USA previously.

For those who are still unaware, the South Korean media giant SM Entertainment is having a tough time dealing with its re-organisation as SM 3.0, or as many call it, a real-life K-drama unfolding in front of them. We’re taking a look at all that has happened so far in this battle of shares that has put the label in turmoil.

Kakao Entertainment purchased SM Entertainment

It all began when it was reported that the founder and essentially the frontman of SM Entertainment, Lee Soo Man, was being pushed out of his own company by those at upper management levels. This not only surprised onlookers but also made them wonder what exactly went wrong for the company to turn against the visionary that is believed to be Lee Soo Man.

Eventually, it was revealed that Kakao Entertainment had become the second-largest shareholder of SM Entertainment after acquiring a 9.05 per cent stake for 217.2 billion KRW in the company on February 7, only second to Lee Soo Man himself who held an 18.73 per cent stake at the time. 

Soon after, Lee Soo Man himself denounced the selling of the company’s shares to Kakao Entertainment as illegal and decided to sue the agency, a rather unforeseen action. He would be claiming the violation of the Commercial Act by issuing new shares of the company and convertible bonds during the ongoing management dispute.

HYBE as potential new candidate

In the meanwhile, as all eyes lay on Lee Soo Man’s move, a potential new candidate in the race was revealed to be the megacorp HYBE which houses talents like BTS, TOMORROW X TOGETHER as well as multiple labels like Source Music, ADOR, BELIFT LAB, and more. The Korea Exchange formally requested HYBE to disclose whether it intends on purchasing SM Entertainment shares, and the company obliged, expressing its wishes. 

The shock from this did not last long and only got bigger when soon after HYBE successfully became the largest shareholder of SM Entertainment by purchasing a 14.8 per cent stake in a 422.8 billion KRW deal (approximately 334.3 million USD). This also came only a day after the company acquired 100 per cent of Quality Control Music, an American company whose artists include Lil Yachty, Migos and Lil Baby for 300 million USD. Lee Soo Man had found an ally with HYBE seeing it as his last option and was now in the same boat as his company who is known to be his rival in the market and was now left with a 3.66 per cent share along with visibly no management rights or royalties as his deal with HYBE would entail.

Moreover, HYBE expressed its wish to obtain an additional 25 per cent stake in SM Entertainment by offering to buy shares from others at 120,000 KRW as its initial tender offer. Should it be successful, HYBE would then own 39.8 per cent and the power shift would be massive in this case. The company has also since expressed its wishes to let SM Entertainment function on its own by only offering changes to its structure and not letting Lee Soo Man exercise any management rights.

Involvement of CJ Entertainment

In the midst of this, as it was clear that the allies now stood as Lee Sung Soo-Kakao versus Lee Soo Man-HYBE, a new media giant’s name popped up. It was rumoured that the CJ Group was looking to join hands with Kakao Entertainment in order to become the largest shareholders of the company. The reports claimed that the Kakao side had reached out to CJ Group to buy a combined 19.9 per cent stake.

However, soon after CJ Group responded to the rumours by calling them groundless. Earlier in 2022, CJ ENM had responded to reports of having the intent to buy SM Entertainment’s shares by saying that they were looking at multiple possible ways to expand their global business.