According to the music industry on February 14, CEO Park Ji Won held an in-house briefing session for employees at the HYBE building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on February 13 and expressed his position on SM’s former executive producer Lee Soo Man’s involvement in management and production.
CEO Park Ji Won said, “I respect SM’s legacy. We will ensure the independence of SM. HYBE has already proven a multi-label system. There is no management participation or production participation of Lee Soo Man. We don’t take royalties anymore. The current HYBE producers such as Bang Si Hyuk and Min Hee Jin are still busy enough, so they don’t have time to produce in SM Entertainment.” He is said to have stressed that he has no resources or thoughts to shake up SM Entertainment.
Earlier, HYBE announced their position regarding producer Lee Soo Man’s return, saying, “It is only groundless speculation that Lee will maintain management control or still produce at SM Entertainment. HYBE has definitely solved the issue of improving SM Entertainment’s governance through stock trading contracts.”
SM is currently in a management dispute. Lee Sung Soo and Tak Young Joon, co-CEOs of SM Entertainment, announced ‘SM 3.0’ on February 3. They said they would push for a change from a single production of Lee Soo Man to a multi-production center/label system, adding that he would form a strategic partnership with Kakao. In response, former general manager Lee Soo Man, the founder and largest shareholder of SM, acquired 14.8% of HYBE’s 18.46% stake for 422.8 billion won, and HYBE became the largest shareholder of SM Entertainment.
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