HYBE CEO Park Ji-won has published an open letter discussing his company’s completed acquisition of the majority stake in its competitor, SM Entertainment.
The letter was posted on HYBE’s official social media accounts on Tuesday in Korean, Japanese and English.
Earlier this month, HYBE, which houses artists such as BTS, SEVENTEEN, LE SSERAFIM and New Jeans, acquired a 14.8% stake in SM, home to K-pop groups Girls’ Generation, NCT, Aespa, SHINee and more.
HYBE is now the single largest shareholder in SM. They have also offered to purchase another 25% stake in the agency from minority investors.
SM엔터테인먼트의 팬, 아티스트, 구성원 및 주주 여러분께 드리는 메시지 pic.twitter.com/YHOOWKD9Yt
— HYBE OFFICIAL (@HYBEOFFICIALtwt) February 22, 2023
Park’s letter claims that HYBE and SM will combine their “creative capabilities and content-oriented culture” as HYBE’s mission of “We believe in music” aligns with SM’s existing 3.0 growth strategy, which Park wants to maintain.
He reiterated that SM artists will have “complete autonomy” as HYBE respects SM’s “legacy and creative values,” adding that HYBE will lend its “business models and networking capacities” to aid SM in its growth. Both companies also run fan community platforms — HYBE’s Weverse and SM’s Bubble — which they aim to expand globally.
SM has not responded to the open letter, but they did post a video on their YouTube channel expressing the advantages of their newfound partnership with tech company Kakao.
Kakao has a 9.05% stake in SM, which was acquired around the time of HYBE’s own announcement.
SM founder Lee Soo-man’s legal counsel has called Kakao’s actions an “act of illegality” and has filed an injunction to terminate the deal.
Based on the assumption that Kakao…
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