Officially Become SM Entertainment's Largest Shareholder, This Is The Promise Of HYBE

Jiwon Park (HYBE Corp.)

JAKARTA - HYBE released an open letter to all fans, artists, employees, and SM Entertainment shareholders today, Wednesday, February 22. They stated that they had acquired Lee Soo Man's shares as the founder of SM.

This makes HYBE SM Entertainment's biggest shareholder. Through the letter, they also explained HYBE and SM Entertainment's plans in the future.

I am Jiwon Park, CEO of HYBE. I am proud to share today, February 22, 2023, HYBE completed the acquisition of 14.8 percent of SM Entertainment (SM) shares owned by founder and former main producer Lee Soo Man and became the largest single shareholder in SM, "as soon as the statement opens.

HYBE explained some of the points of HYBE's plans for SM Entertainment after the acquisition. They consider HYBE's tagline We believe in music related to SM's plan as the top global entertainment company.

HYBE successfully manages a multi-label system by providing autonomous labels. HYBE respects SM's legacy and creative value. We will share a business model and capacity of connections with SM to help with global creative development," he explained.

HYBE will support the efforts of SM artists to appear in the global music industry. The two companies will work together to form global music where our artists can introduce their music," Jiwon Park continued.

Jiwon Park said it was ready to help SM artists expand in the global arena such as the United States, South America, and India. While joining SM can also help HYBE artists to develop in Southeast Asia, China, and Japan.

"With collaborative cooperation, we can be the most innovative game changer in the global music industry," explained Jiwon Park.

In the statement, Jiwon Park also mentioned that the two platforms owned by HYBE, namely Weverse and SM with Bubble, could compete globally. The development of these two largest entertainment companies will form a business plan in the future.

The top two platforms, Weverse from HYBE and Bubble from SM will expand outside Korea and compete in the global arena. We will develop opportunities to improve the capabilities of the two companies from businesses, concerts, distributions, and IPs," he said again.

The last is no less important. I am aware of the concerns of SM fans, artists, employees and shareholders because of rumors and speculation among the company. HYBE fully respects SM 3.0's plans as well as the vision and mission that SM artists and employees have," he continued.

I would like to express my regret for the SM artist who felt affected by this incident. We respect SM artists as we respect HYBE artists. We will do our best to make a bright future for all artists under SM," said Jiwon Park.

SM엔터테인먼트의 팬, 아티스트, 구성원 및 주주 여러분께 드리는 메시지 pic.twitter.com/YHOOWKD9Yt

— HYBE OFFICIAL (@HYBEOFFICIALtwt) February 22, 2023

As an era of change, Jiwon Park hopes that this statement can clarify and avoid baseless assumptions circulating in public.

"As recorded in our DNA, Win Together HYBE is full of enthusiasm for mutual success. We look forward to enjoying success with SM fans, employees, artists and shareholders going forward," said Jiwon Park.

"If we work with each other, we can lead the K-pop phenomenon globally. Thank you," Jiwon Park concluded.

Jiwon Park wrote an open letter after SM Entertainment's CFO, Jang Cheol Hyuk expressed his rejection of HYBE's acquisition. He considers the acquisition to reduce the value of SM artists and reduces their priority to actively releasing music or touring. He also considers HYBE's acquisition to create a monopoly and this is not good for the music industry going forward.