The internal feud involving SM Entertainment continues, and many are focused on whether HYBE or Kakao will become the largest shareholder in SM Entertainment.
Recently, SM Entertainment posted a video explaining why the current management is against HYBE’s hostile takeover. Jang Cheol Hyuk, the CFO of SM Entertainment, explained that HYBE is aiming to acquire a total of 40% of the company to take control over management rights.
SM Entertainment accused HYBE of threatening SM with a hostile takeover without consulting the board of executives.
With the latest feud underway, K-pop fans took a look at one of HYBE's past acquisitions and the girl group that was affected by it.
GFriend was a girl group under Source Music, which was acquired by HYBE, and received much love for their innocent and lovely concept.
After HYBE took over Source Music, HYBE's producers and team took over GFriend's promotions. From music production to concept planning, HYBE took the lead. As a result, GFriend made a comeback with a completely different concept.
While many fans loved the transformation, there were some who were disappointed because they felt the girl group lost their own unique color.
Netizens commented, "I think GFriend was the only group that HYBE really intervened with," "I still like their songs 'Mago' and 'Apple' so I listen to them even now," "I really liked their concept for their comeback, but I was a bit disappointed how GFriend lost their innocent concept," "I think GFriend became like any other girl group. They lost their unique color after HYBE took over," "Their 'Mago' song and concept is so good but they disbanded, which made me so sad," "I'm not part of their fandom but I really liked GFriend ever since their debut. I really loved 'Mago' concept too," and "I became a fan when they promoted 'Apple' but they disbanded so fast."
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I was a major fan of GFriend since "Rough" on, and I never felt like Source being bought affected anything about how GFriend chose to promote, until the time the group disbanded of course. The group enjoyed maturing into new concepts, and it's weird to try to retroactively blame HYBE for something that the GFriend members themselves seemed to enjoy and appreciate. Obviously, none of us can know what might have been going on behind the scenes, but as far as activities we can actually observe go, there was nothing weird going on. I mean--the GFriend members even contributed to the writing of "Mago"!
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