Over the past few weeks, the biggest buzz in the entertainment industry is the feud between SM Entertainment and Lee Soo Man. This feud grew bigger when HYBE announced that the label purchased 14.8% of SM shares, becoming the biggest shareholder.
This led CEO Lee Sung Soo to accuse HYBE of making moves of a hostile takeover as HYBE purchased Lee Soo Man's shares without prior consultation with SM Entertainment. Additionally, HYBE announced their intention to acquire an additional 25% stake in SM Entertainment for 900 million USD.
With the feud over SM Entertainment operation management growing to a large scale, many fans are concerned about the future of SM artists.
Recently, fans decided to take the matter into their own hands and raise their voice against HYBE taking over SM Entertainment. Fans sent a protest truck to HYBE's headquarters, expressing their anger over a "hostile takover" of SM Entertainment.
The protesting truck showed messages such as "HYBE is the one that uses 10 billion KRW on Lee Soo Man's crazy tree planting project," "SM fans union goes against HYBE's monopoly and we support SM," "Don't covet SM 3.0, holding hands with Lee Soo Man who is wanted by the Interpol," "HYBE, take care of your own artists, we will take care of ours," "Don't touch SM artists and don't do anything that will bring slander to HYBE artists," "HYBE, we believe in ̶M̶u̶s̶i̶c̶ money," and more.
Other netizens commented, "Wow, SM fans are on another scale," "Why are they doing this to HYBE, they're sending it to the wrong place," "They should send the truck in front of SM," "SM fans haven't changed," "This is so embarrassing," "They need to say something to Lee Soo Man," "I'm so embarrassed for them," and "Oh man."
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