Additional details have surfaced, bringing further insight into the feud between ADOR and HYBE.
On April 24, a stock trader on the Blind online community, an anonymous platform for verified employees to candidly share about their careers, workplaces, and companies, revealed a detailed timeline of Min Hee Jin's time with Source Music and ADOR under HYBE.
The Blind poster explained, "Bang Si Hyuk created BTS. Through the global group BTS, Big Hit became a label that surpassed SM YG JYP to a level beyond." The poster further explained that one thing Bang Si Hyuk failed to do was create a successful girl group so he acquired Source Music, which had successfully launched the popular girl group GFriend.
The poster explained, "At the same time, he recruits Min Hee Jin who was a creative director SM to Source Music." Min Hee Jin has been renowned for making contributions to K-pop with her unique art visuals and concepts seen through SM artists, including Girls' Generation, f(x), Red Velvet, EXO, SHINee, and more. During this time, with Min Hee Jin joining the team, Source Music actively moved ahead with launching a new girl group. They started global auditions to select members for New Jeans, starting off with Minji on September 4, 2019.
2020
The entertainment industry seemed to take a back step with COVID but Big Hit did not stop there and strengthened its determination by acquiring Pledis Entertainment, known for Seventeen, and aiming for an autumn listing (launching an IPO and going public). (2020, May 25)
BTS reached number one on the Billboard HOT 100 for the first time with "Dynamite." (2020, August 21)
Finally, in October, Big Hit Entertainment led a significant surge, after the IPO, it rose to become an entertainment company worth around 11 trillion KRW (~8 billion USD). (2020, October 15)
2021
Big Hit requests Min Hee Jin for a company rebranding and they change the company name to HYBE, becoming a global entertainment company with a multi-label system. (2021, March 10)
The main issue of contention between Min Hee Jin and Bang Si Hyuk began in 2021 when Min Hee Jin stated, "I want to debut NewJeans through my own solo label, not under Source Music."
Bang Si Hyuk invested 16.1 billion KRW (11.7 million USD) - 100% capital provided by HYBE - into a new subsidiary called ADOR, established through a physical division from Source Music. He promised Min Hee Jin an annual salary of 500 million KRW (370,000 USD) and a future exercisable ADOR stock option of 20%. Then, she took Minji, Hanni, Danielle, and Haerin, who had been preparing as trainees under Source Music, to ADOR. (2021, November 12)
2022
After Min Hee Jin left Source Music, the company experienced significant staff losses. To counter this, they recruited Kim Chae Won and Sakura on March 14, 2022, and debuted the girl group LE SSERAFIM. (2022, May 2)
Although ADOR partially covered the training costs for the Source Music trainees, they did not fully compensate for the training period and the staff losses.
ADOR debuted New Jeans with Hyein on July 22, 2022, achieving record-breaking first-week sales for a girl group. (2022, July 22)
2023
ADOR's financial success continued as its sales surged from 18.6 billion KRW (~13.5 million USD) in 2022 to 110.3 billion KRW (~80 million USD) in 2023. In an attempt to fulfill earlier promises, Bang Si Hyuk tried to offer Min Hee Jin 20% ownership in stock options. However, she demanded more due to a 45% tax rate at the acquisition point. Ultimately, Bang provided her with 18% ownership through low-priced stocks instead of options. According to a Hana Securities report at the time, ADOR was valued at 2 trillion KRW (~1.5 billion USD), and Min Hee Jin received compensation nearing 400 billion KRW (~290 million USD) by the end of 2023.
2024
Tensions escalated by the end of 2023 as Min Hee Jin began negotiations with major global investors like the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund and the Singapore Investment Corporation to secure a larger stake. She aimed to persuade HYBE, which owns 80% of ADOR, to sell more than 30% of its stake, seeking a stake of over 50% to own management rights of ADOR with the support of these investors.
Min Hee Jin is also accused of using underhanded tactics, such as leaking HYBE artists’ personal information and manipulating the families of New Jeans members to pressure HYBE. Legal guardians of New Jeans members asked for clarifications on allegations of HYBE copying their style (with ILLIT) but refused to take a meeting, citing distrust in HYBE’s intentions.
Frustrated, Bang Si Hyuk accepted a market capitalization loss of 850 billion KRW (~618 million USD) and initiated an audit.
Korean netizens responded:
"Wow. This timeline just proves Min Hee Jin is just greedy for money."
"She tried to take ADOR. She's one scary person."
"Now I understand clearly what's going on."
"So Min Hee Jin basically tried to steal ADOR from HYBE."
"She's so greedy for money."
"Wow."
"This is bigger than I thought."
"This is the new FIFTY FIFTY."
"Her greed is endless. She never had her own money to create a group and debut them. So she tried to steal a whole company from HYBE."
"Money is the root of all evil."
"This is the biggest backstabbing incident, isn't it? Greed is the problem."
"She is so greedy, it's scary."
"Bang Si Hyuk must be so mad. It's not about money now. She is backstabbing him big time."
"Her greed is too excessive."
"She's crazy for money."
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If this is true, then LSF was haphazardly put together last minute due to MHJ's actions in order to save SouMu from bankcruptcy. Which explains why the LSF members had such a short trainee period compared to NJ or other groups. Not that I'm defending SouMu, they did sacrifice a lot of money and staff to make Ador. HYBE ended up putting all their eggs in one basket leading to MHJ acting like this. Which may or may not have been directly related to Gfriend's disbandment? Idk it's all a mess. All I know is the more details are coming out, the more unlikeable MHJ is getting.
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