SM Entertainment
Gamma., Kakao Entertainment and SM Entertainment have formed a strategic global alliance to launch British boy band dearALICE, the companies jointly announced on Tuesday (Nov. 26). The pact will include global distribution in the U.S., U.K. and Korea/APAC, along with label services across A&R, production, marketing, promotion, brand sponsorships and global business development.
dearALICE’s formation was documented in the six-part BBC One series Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience, which was produced by Kakao, SM and British production company Moon&Back Media (The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent). The show followed the group’s five U.K. members — Blaise Noon, Dexter Greenwood, James Sharp, Oliver (Olly) Quinn and Reese Carter — as they embarked on a 100-day K-pop-style training regimen at SM. An original soundtrack album from the show was also released.
The parties came together in L.A. to finalize the agreement. Those in attendance included Larry Jackson, co-founder/CEO at gamma.; Joseph Chang, co-CEO at Kakao Entertainment and CEO at SM & Kakao Entertainment America; Jung Min Choi, chief growth officer at SM Entertainment; Kevin Nishimura, COO at SM & Kakao Entertainment; Ben Cook, president of UK & Europe at gamma.; Russ Lindsay, co-founder at Moon&Back Media; and all five dearALICE members.
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dearALICE is slated to release its official debut single by the end of this year.
“I have found that it is a superpower in life to embrace the truth of ‘I know what I don’t know.’ I have always been intrigued by the music and culture coming out of South Korea, and to now partner with Kakao Entertainment and SM Entertainment on dearALICE affords gamma. an opportunity to learn from THE BEST in that culture,” said Jackson in a statement. “We are already finding a special creative kinship with Joseph, Kevin and their teams. Our ideations are very much aligned albeit informed by different life experiences, from disparate corners of the globe.”
Jackson continued, “The cleverness of creating this show, it premiering on the BBC in the U.K., and bringing this extremely talented group to the world by way of it, was their idea, and we are thrilled to be a part of it. Kakao Entertainment and SM have always been purveyors of true, patient artist development in Korea, and I have deeply respected their approach from afar. Expect to hear a lot from dearALICE in 2025.”
“Our partnership with gamma. represents an exciting step in our ongoing strategy for the successful launch of dearALICE,” said Chang. “Collaborating with a label of gamma.’s stature, known for its deep industry expertise and innovative approach, allows us to accelerate our efforts in bringing forward dearALICE to audiences worldwide. dearALICE stands out as a truly distinctive project for our company, blending British roots with the global reach and creative influences of Kakao Entertainment and SM Entertainment. We believe this collaboration will unlock new opportunities for the group to thrive internationally, while also showcasing their groundbreaking artistry to music fans across the globe.”
Added Lindsay, “What an amazing twelve months it’s been for the boys! From being cast in December last year, to experiencing a unique and unforgettable 100 days of K-pop training with SM Entertainment in Korea, then premiering a 6-part Saturday night BBC One TV series in the summer, followed by the Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience Original TV Soundtrack EP release and a superb live performance on the UK’s highest-rated entertainment show, BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing! It’s a testament to their incredible hard work and passion that sees them sign a major global recording and distribution deal with gamma., joining a stable with some of the world’s most talented artists and music executives.”
Shares of Spotify rose 8.0% to $365.00 this week to lead all music stocks in a week the Billboard Global Music Index reached a new high and many of its largest components posted mid- to high-single digit gains.
The Swedish music streaming giant was boosted by a report by Pivotal Research Group that increased its price target to $510 from $460 and reiterated its “buy” rating. Spotify’s intraday high of $368.29 on Thursday set a new 52-week high for the stock and was its best mark since Feb. 21, 2021.
Spotify led the 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) to a record high 1,873.87, up 4.1% for the week, as ten of the stocks posted gains this week, nine lost value and one was unchanged. After a 4.8% drop the week ending Sept. 6 and stagnating since March, the BGMI has gained 7.4% in the last two weeks and raised its year-to-date gain to 22.2%—more than two percentage points above the gains of the Nasdaq composite (up 19.6%) and the S&P 500 (also up 19.6%).
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Stocks generally had a good week after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday a rate cut of half a percentage point, the first time the central bank lowered the overnight borrowing rate since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Investors had expected the Fed’s move, though, and had priced the effect of a rate cut into stock prices. Still, the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.5% to 17,948.32 and the S&P 500 rose 1.4% to 5,702.55. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index improved 0.7% to 2,736.81 and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.2% to 2,736.81. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 fell 0.5% to 8,229.99.
Warner Music Group gained 4.9% to $30.44. WMG’s Atlantic Music Group laid off about 150 people Thursday as part of a restructuring plan that began in February. The week’s intraday high of $30.88 was WMG’s highest price since reaching $32.34 on July 24. The company also announced in an SEC filing this week it secured a $1.3 billion term loan that will be used to repay an existing loan and pay associated fees and expenses.
Live Nation shares also gained 4.9% to $103.65 and brought its year-to-date improvement to 10.7%. Thursday’s intraday high of $105.42 was its highest mark since April 1 and less than $2 below its 52-week high of $107.24. The concert promoter scored a win in Portland, Ore., this week after the city council upheld an August decision to allow the development of a 3,500-capacity music venue that will be operated by Live Nation.
Two other promoters also posted gains this week. MSG Entertainment, rose 4.6% to $42.16, while CTS Eventim improved 1.2% to 87.90 euros ($98.23). Another live entertainment company, Sphere Entertainment Co., dropped 2.7% to $41.09.
K-pop companies’ modest decline was an improvement from their consistently steep drops in recent weeks. The four South Korean companies had an average loss of 1.2% this week. HYBE fell 2.4%, JYP Entertainment dipped 1.2%, YG Entertainment slipped 0.9% and SM Entertainment lost 0.2%. After surging in previous years, the quartet has an average year-to-date loss of 40.4%.
Universal Music Group fell 3.6% to 22.75 euros ($25.42) following its Capital Markets Day on Tuesday. Analysts generally felt UMG set reachable financial targets and presented a believable roadmap about its strategy for the next four years. The Amsterdam-listed company laid out a strategy to achieve 8% to 10% cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) for its subscription revenue and above 7% CAGR for total revenue.
Music streamer LiveOne had the biggest decline of the week, dropping 6.1% to $1.38. That put shares of LiveOne into the red for 2024 with a 1.4% year-to-date loss.
Just days after a company established to release solo music by band members of K-pop group EXO declared “war” against the stars’ longtime label and management agency SM Entertainment over a contract dispute, the K-pop giant has filed a lawsuit against the trio. As reported by the Korea JoongAng Daily, SM filed a civil suit […]
When RIIZE goes out to dinner, it’s a 20-person affair.
On this particular Sunday evening, the pioneering South Korean mega-label SM Entertainment has reserved a private room at a hot spot in Los Angeles’ Koreatown popular with music artists for its new boy band. The six members file in around a long table — along with an SM-associated translator (who is occasionally assisted by two other team members), a publicist from RCA Records (an SM partner for RIIZE), a veteran manager from Seoul and eight additional crew members who sit in a nearby booth.
The Korean group is in town for its RIIZING DAY Fan-Con Tour tomorrow — a “fan-concert” where the group intersperses choreographed performances of its own K-pop hits with casual games, informal onstage chats among themselves and special covers of both K-pop classics and global boy band hits, like One Direction’s “One Thing.” It’s RIIZE’s first time headlining a show in the United States, but its third group visit to L.A. Before the May 20 concert, the group flew here in August to attend the city’s annual KCON K-pop mega-fest and also filmed two music videos in town: the jovial “Memories” (a pre-debut single that generated buzz for the group that month) and its official debut single, “Get a Guitar,” a slick, bubblegum earworm released in both Korean and English that’s now RIIZE’s most streamed song globally, with 219.6 million official on-demand streams since its September release, according to Luminate.
“Not even a year has passed since our debut, but so much has happened,” says RIIZE’s youngest member, 20-year-old Anton, as his bandmates nibble on naan bread and citrus-splashed hamachi crudo. “Back then, our group was, like, innocent, you know? Now, we’ve sort of adjusted to traveling and visiting other countries.”
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Shotaro
Munachi Osegbu
Sungchan
Munachi Osegbu
In fact, RIIZE’s members weren’t totally green when the group made its official debut on Sept. 4, 2023, through K-pop giant SM in a partnership with RCA. Shotaro and Sungchan had previously debuted in NCT, the ambitious boy band project that SM launched in 2016, becoming its two newest members in 2020 and contributing to Resonance, Pt. 1, NCT’s highest-charting Billboard 200 release. Two years later, SM’s board of directors moved to terminate the company’s production contract with founder Lee Soo-Man (from whom SM gets its name) in 2022 in an effort to shift SM away from Lee’s creative authority. In May 2023, Korean multimedia conglomerate Kakao became the company’s largest shareholder after a heated bidding war with K-pop titan HYBE (which initially bought Lee’s stake in the company but then sold it to Kakao during a tender offer) for access to SM’s nearly 30 years of K-pop glory, including an extensive catalog, dedicated divisions for nonmusic opportunities like acting, technology and the metaverse, as well as dozens of active artists — soon to include its newest addition, RIIZE.
Just days before Kakao became majority shareholder, SM CEO Jang Cheol-Hyuk revealed that as part of a company restructuring, NCT — originally pitched as a group with infinite members splintered into localized subunits worldwide — would no longer infinitely expand and that Shotaro and Sungchan would leave to debut in a new group, joining previously announced SM Rookies (the company’s team of trainees) Eunseok and Seunghan, along with other Korean and American members. In July 2023, excitement mounted when K-pop media outlets reported that the son of acclaimed Korean singer-songwriter-producer Yoon Sang — later revealed to be Anton — would also join the project.
Finally, on July 27, 2023, SM introduced RIIZE. The group (whose name is a portmanteau of “rise” and “realize”) launched its Instagram with 27 photos — casual selfies and mirror pics without the flashy fashion, perfect makeup or glossy finishes that often characterize K-pop photo shoots even on social media — revealing the seven-member lineup of Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Wonbin, Seunghan, Sohee and Anton. (Six are at dinner tonight; in November, SM placed Seunghan on “indefinite suspension,” though he is still listed as a RIIZE member on the label’s website.)
RIIZE has sought to present itself as more down-to-earth — a noticeable change from previous, high-concept SM artist launches like the supernatural-inspired boy band EXO; the girl group aespa, which sings about straddling the real and virtual worlds; and other larger-than-life K-pop idols the label has served up since the late 1990s. RIIZE describes its music as “emotional pop,” a phrase it uses, Anton says, “because we hope that people can relate to it emotionally. The members all do, and I think that’s what our fans want from us as well.”
Clockwise from top left: Wonbin, Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Anton, and Sohee.
Munachi Osegbu
But RIIZE differs from other K-pop outfits in ways that go beyond the aesthetic or concept. For one, its social media approach is far more hands-on than that of its contemporaries, who tend to have marketing-approved captions; @riize_official sprinkles comments across fans’ TikTok accounts. The members also filmed the #GetAGuitarChallenge with influencers including Merrick Hanna (who has 32.5 million followers on TikTok), reacted to tasting Indonesian snacks with Jerome Polin (8.2 million followers on Instagram) and shot charming content with South Korea’s most prominent openly gay celebrity, the tastemaker Hong Seok-Cheon, who predicted Wonbin as a “face” to watch in 2024.
“We have a concept called ‘real-time odyssey,’” Eunseok explains. “We post a lot of pictures of our daily life and intimate [moments] on social media.” Anton clarifies: “We don’t really think of it as a concept — we’re just trying to show our authentic selves.”
Unlike many of its peers, RIIZE also does not have a designated “leader,” even if the Tokyo-raised Shotaro — at 23, the group’s eldest and only Japanese member — naturally steps up. At dinner, he ensures everyone around him (including this reporter) has water and their drink of choice. He’s the first to speak at the meal and divulges the most about his musical tastes; Sam Smith is a favorite. To his left is his fellow ex-NCT member, Seoul-born Sungchan, 22, whose beaming smile helped him become a host of the weekly K-pop performance TV program Inkigayo while he was in NCT. One day, he hopes Pharrell Williams will collaborate on a track for RIIZE. Shotaro likens Sungchan to the color sky blue because he has “a very clear heart… and is very innocent.”
Sohee
Munachi Osegbu
Wonbin
Munachi Osegbu
RIIZE’s four other members sit across from the duo. Born and raised in Seoul, Eunseok, 23, prefers calm ballads and the music of Ed Sheeran. While his outside demeanor matches his musical taste, his bandmates reveal he has a more lighthearted side: As Sohee describes, Eunseok is known for giving “very random and fantastical” nonsensical nicknames to everyone he meets. Anton calls them “basically video-game character names,” which makes everyone laugh.
The 22-year-old Wonbin — or “Dark Bean,” as Eunseok has dubbed him, to the rest of RIIZE’s amusement — was born in Seoul but raised in South Korea’s southern port city of Ulsan; he digs Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience-era singles like “Mirrors” and “Suit & Tie.” Baby-faced powerhouse vocalist Sohee, 20, grew up in Siheung, located in the country’s most populous province, Gyeonggi; he is not only “really bright,” Anton explains, “[but] his mindset is always really positive as well.”
Last is Anton, 20, son of singer Yoon Sang and the actress Shim Hye-Jin. While Anton has appeared on South Korean TV since childhood (Yoon Sang is based in South Korea), he was born in Boston and raised in New Jersey; growing up in the United States fostered his appetite for music discovery and exploration, which ultimately became the foundation for his K-pop career. “I don’t really think I have a favorite artist per se,” he says, soft-spoken but self-assured. “I just like to explore as many genres [as I can] and try to listen to a lot of different music even if I don’t understand the language. People who enjoy K-pop might not understand Korean.”
From left: Anton, Sohee, Wonbin, Eunseok, Shotaro, and Sungchan of RIIZE photographed May 21, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Munachi Osegbu
Anton’s musical philosophy encapsulates the growing mindset of the young audience with whom RIIZE, as well as SM and RCA, hope to connect. As U.S. listeners become increasingly interested in foreign-language music, RIIZE has earned 37.8 million official U.S. on-demand streams — contributing to 641.2 million globally — according to Luminate. And it hopes to continue expanding its fan base (known as BRIIZE, pronounced “breeze”) with the June 17 release of RIIZING – The 1st Mini Album. Its new single, “Boom Boom Bass,” incorporates the same hooky energy of “Get a Guitar” while adding shimmery disco vibes and an irresistible bassline. Sungchan and Wonbin both say it’s their favorite RIIZE song yet.
After five different K-pop releases topped the Billboard 200 last year, driven by K-pop fans’ love of physical product and labels delivering collectible album packages in multiple versions, RCA Records COO John Fleckenstein says the label is “absolutely focused on delivering physical versions for RIIZE” in the United States — but as just one way to elevate the group’s presence.
“The vision behind our global partnership was to marry what both our companies do best across all areas to bring additional opportunities, reach, resources and growth to support RIIZE,” Fleckenstein adds. “Our passion lies in exploring the intersection of music, art, culture and then connecting that to an audience. SM have been incredible partners who truly understand the market.”
Eunseok
Munachi Osegbu
Anton
Munachi Osegbu
As the members of RIIZE dip into Basque cheesecakes for dessert, they share their personal goals for the future, both near and distant. They hope that “Boom Boom Bass” can crack multiple Billboard charts and are looking forward to their first original Japanese-language single, “Lucky,” due in July, calling it “a perfect song for the summer.” Shotaro dreams of someday performing at the Super Bowl and the Billboard Music Awards.
RIIZE wants fans to understand that the Fan-Con Tour is only the beginning, and that the members plan to visit many countries. When Shotaro and Anton burst into tears during the band’s two sold-out dates at Tokyo’s Yoyogi National Gymnasium arena in May, it brought new meaning to the group’s “emotional pop” — and conveyed how much RIIZE wants an offline fan connection that is as strong as its online one.
“I really did not plan on crying whatsoever,” Anton reflects. “That was our biggest concert to date, and seeing the fans far away holding up our signs and stuff was just sort of overwhelming.” At the concert the day after dinner, the members manage not to break into tears — but their performance is no less heartfelt. Amid heart-stopping choreography, Anton pauses to address the audience. “We’ll work hard,” he says, “to become a RIIZE that BRIIZE can be proud of.”
SM Entertainment has issued a statement strongly denying rumors that NCT members Johnny and Haechan, as well as Heechul of Super Junior, are involved in a sex scandal that has gained increased scrutiny and attention both inside and outside Korea.
Earlier this week, allegations arose from different social media users detailing the alleged sexual affairs of Johnny, 29, and Haechan, 23, both members of SM Entertainment boy band NCT, with three women during a recent visit to Tokyo in March.
As NME notes, the claims stemmed from a Japanese nightlife gossip account on Twitter regarding three women said to be working in Tokyo’s nightlife industry as bar hostesses. Purported evidence of their time with the K-pop idols came via photos of three women holding hotel cards where the stars stayed, room interiors that point to five people drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes together and one blurry photo that allegedly shows Johnny and Haechan entering the hotel with three women despite the fact that none of their faces can be readily identified. Captions and comments from the women describing their alleged experiences, as well as alleged text message conversations about meeting the K-pop stars, were also put forth as so-called evidence by the gossip account.
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Johnny and Haechan have not shared anything about the alleged encounters, but NCT 127 (the nine-member boy band that both singers are also a part of under the NCT brand) did fly into Japan on March 8, 2024 to perform a March 9 concert at the Tokyo Dome.
The claims soon went viral among K-pop fans and by Tuesday (June 4), SM Entertainment’s stock price had fallen from that day’s peak of 90,300 Korean won ($65.94) to 82,300 Korean won ($60.10) — though by press time, the stock had since rebounded to 85,500 Korean won ($62.44). The story even made it onto the evening news for KBS, the Korean national broadcaster, during a report about SM’s stock price drop.
Heechul of Super Junior, a more senior boy band under SM that’s been active for nearly 20 years, was also brought into the rumor mill after private photos of the singer with one of the women involved in the controversy made their way online. According to several blogs monitoring the situation, Heechul, 40, spoke about the news on the fan-messaging app Dear U denying that he drank or had meals with any of the junior SM Entertainment performers outside of work and that he is speaking with the label to clear any misunderstanding.
On Wednesday (June 5), South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency shared a statement from SM Entertainment denying any unsavory behavior from their artists. In the statement, SM labeled the rumors as “entirely false” and said they “constitute criminal acts that severely damage the artists’ reputations,” per Yonhap. The company added, “We have already gathered sufficient evidence regarding numerous posts related to these matters…we will not overlook such criminal acts and will take legal action against those involved without leniency or settlement, regardless of their nationality.”
SM Entertainment and representatives for NCT and Super Junior did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s requests for comment.
SM Entertainment, home to such K-pop stars as aespa and RIIZE, promoted Tak Young-jun to co-CEO alongside existing CEO Jang Cheol-hyuk, the company announced Wednesday (March 27). Tak was also named executive director of the company’s board. Tak, who joined SM Entertainment in 2005, has served as COO since May 2023. Prior to that, he […]
K-pop giant HYBE purchased 868,948 shares of SM Entertainment, the company behind such acts as aespa and NCT 127, for approximately 104.3 billion won ($78 million) after SM founder Lee Soo-man exercised an option to sell the shares, HYBE announced in a Feb. 28 regulatory filing. The purchase concludes a transaction that briefly created a […]
With a slate of new artists and a recently launched North American joint venture, SM Entertainment’s revenue reached 250 billion won ($189.5 million at the period’s average exchange rate) in the fourth quarter of 2023, down 3.4% year over year and 6.1% lower than the third quarter, the company announced Wednesday (Feb. 7). Operating profit dropped 51.7% to 10.9 billion won ($8.3 million) while the company posted a net loss of 19.7 billion won ($14.9 million) compared to a 1.9 billion won ($1.4 million) net profit in the prior-year period.
The company attributed a decline in revenue from its concert-related subsidiaries to smaller-sized concerts and a decline in its content-related subsidiaries to “slow business conditions.” SM Entertainment’s share price rose 0.2% to 73,000 won ($54.77) after the earnings release.
SM Entertainment sold 5.6 million albums in the fourth quarter, up 40% from the prior-year quarter; NCT 127’s album Fact Check sold 1.86 million units and aespa’s Drama EP sold 1.26 million units. As for concerts, NCT Wish performed 24 shows in nine cities in Japan ahead of its debut album’s release later this quarter. SHINee performed for 80,000 fans at four concerts in Japan. NCT 127 had six concerts in Seoul, Korea with a total attendance of 60,000.
For the full year, SM Entertainment released 64 albums that sold a record 20.1 million units, and its artists performed at 340 concerts around the world. RIIZE, the first boy band launched under the company’s new multi-production system — an organizational structure introduced in 2023 to break from the previous system that relied solely on founder and ousted chief producer Lee Soo-man — sold more than 1 million units of its debut album, Get a Guitar, which was released in September.
“The multi-production system, which is the core part of our SM 3.0 strategy, has been operating successfully since its introduction last year, and active musical activities are underway under the guidance of each production SM director,” CEO Jang Cheol Hyuk said during Wednesday’s earnings call. The system is meant to speed the introduction of new artists and material by providing other leaders with decision-making powers.
Looking ahead to 2024, SM Entertainment will launch four new artists: NCT Wish, virtual artist naevis, an unnamed girl group and a U.K.-based boy band. The company also plans to release global albums for major artists at least once a year and expand the scale of global concerts, Jang said.
In the first quarter, SM has EPs from NCT Dream, TEN, Taeyong and Wendy, while NCT 127 is performing 13 dates in Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Macau. The second quarter will see a new album from aespa and EPs from Red Velvet, RIIZE, SHINee, SUHO and WayV, as well as 15 concert dates for NCT Dream in Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. Other artists including MINHO, TVXQ!, Super Junior-L.S.S., SHINee, TAEmin and aespa each have a handful of shows in the first or second quarter.
SM Entertainment also expects to see results from its North American partnership with Kakao Entertainment. The two companies are “working to establish and expand local partnerships for artists,” said Jang. He pointed to the joint venture’s strategic agreement with Moon & Back, a U.K.-based entertainment and TV production company, that will cast a five-member boy group in the United Kingdom and perform songs sourced from KMR, SM Entertainment’s new music publishing subsidiary.
The Billboard Global Music Index — a diverse collection of 20 publicly traded music companies — finished 2023 up 31.3% as Spotify’s share price alone climbed 138% thanks to cost-cutting and focus on margins. Spotify is the single-largest component of the float-adjusted index and has one of the largest market capitalizations of any music company.
The music index was outperformed by the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite, which gained 43.4% with the help of triple-digit gains from chipmaker Nvidia Corp (+239%) and Meta Platforms (+194%). But the Billboard Global Music Index exceeded some other major indexes: the S&P 500 gained 24.2%, South Korea’s KOSPI composite index grew 18.7% and the FTSE 100 improved 3.8%.
Other than Spotify, a handful of major companies had double-digit gains in 2023 that drove the index’s improvement. Universal Music Group finished the year up 14.7%. Concert promoter Live Nation rode a string of record-setting quarters to a 34.2% gain. HYBE, the increasingly diversified K-pop company, rose 34.6%. SM Entertainment, in which HYBE acquired a minority stake in March, gained 20.1%.
A handful of smaller companies also finished the year with big gains. LiveOne gained 117.4%. Reservoir Media improved 19.4%. Chinese music streamer Cloud Music improved 15.8%.
The biggest loser on the Billboard Global Music Index in 2023 was radio broadcaster iHeartMedia, which fell 56.4%. Abu Dhabi-based music streamer Anghami finished 2023 down 34.8%. After a series of large fluctuations in recent months, Anghami ended the year 69% below its high mark for 2023. Hipgnosis Songs Fund, currently undergoing a strategic review after shareholders voted against continuation in October, finished the year down 16.6%.
Sphere Entertainment Co., which split from MSG Entertainment’s live entertainment business back in April, ended 2023 down 24.4%. Most of that decline came before the company opened its flagship venue, Sphere, in Las Vegas on September 29, however. Since U2 opened the venue to widespread acclaim and earned Sphere global media coverage, the stock dropped only 8.5%.
For the week, the index rose 1.1% to 1,534.07. Fourteen of the index’s 20 stocks posted gains this week, four dropped in price and one was unchanged.
LiveOne shares rose 15.7% to $1.40 after the company announced on Friday (Dec. 29) it added 63,000 new paid memberships in December and surpassed 3.5 million total memberships, an increase of 29% year over year. iHeartMedia shares climbed 14.6% to $2.67. Anghami continued its ping-pong trajectory by finishing the week up 16.9%.
In a stunning wrinkle in the fevered battle between Kakao Corp. and HYBE for a controlling stake in K-pop company SM Entertainment, Kakao’s chief investment officer was indicted Monday (Nov. 13) for allegedly manipulating the stock price to ward off HYBE’s rival bid.
Bae Jae-hyun, Kakao’s chief investment officer, will face a trial for violating South Korea’s Capital Markets Act, according to reports. He allegedly inflated the price of SM Entertainment shares by purchasing 240 billion won ($181.3 million) of shares while HYBE, home of K-pop group BTS, was attempting to buy a large stake in the company. Prosecutors also charged Kakao using a provision in the law that allows both a company and its employees to be punished.
The scheme to manipulate SM Entertainment’s share price stemmed from a heated competition between Kakao and HYBE to become the largest shareholder in SM Entertainment — home to such K-pop acts as NCT Dream and Red Velvet — to help rebuild the company after it terminated a production contract with its founder, Lee Soo-man. In February, HYBE acquired a 14.8% stake in the K-pop giant from Lee and attempted to acquire an additional 25% stake through a tender offer at 120,000 won ($92.36) per share. HYBE’s bid was too low, however, and the tender offer gave HYBE less than 1% of outstanding shares.
Bae allegedly acquired SM Entertainment shares to drive up the price above HYBE’s tender offer price, thus thwarting its efforts to obtain a larger stake. On March 6, Kakeo and Kakao Entertainment followed with a tender offer of 150,000 won ($115.46) per share — 25% above HYBE’s tender offer price — and ended up acquiring an additional 25% stake, bringing its ownership of SM Entertainment to 40%. HYBE abandoned its bid to control SM Entertainment on March 13 and announced on March 28 that it would sell nearly half of its stake in SM Entertainment to Kakao for 248.8 billion won ($191.8 million).
Kakao is a South Korean tech conglomerate that owns the country’s dominant chap app, KakaoTalk, and a popular taxi-hailing app, Kakao Mobility, among other products. A subsidiary, Kakao Entertainment, owns Starship Entertainment, home to such K-pop groups as Monsta X, as well as South Korea streaming app Melon. In August, Kakao Entertainment and SM Entertainment revealed their plans to create a North American joint venture by the end of 2023.
The investigation into stock manipulation started soon after Kakao and Kakao Entertainment beat out HYBE for the SM Entertainment stake. South Korean officials raided the offices of Kakao and Kakao Entertainment on April 6 and SM Entertainment’s headquarters on April 18. Bae was arrested for suspected stock manipulation on Oct. 19 before being indicted on Monday. Other executives were suspected of working with Bae to inflate SM Entertainment’s share price, according to a Reuters article at the time of his arrest, but to date no one else has been charged.