News 208 SM Employees Release Collective Statement About Their Stance On The Company's Current Situation (1 Viewer)

[Myth]

SM Entertainment employees has spoken up about the company’s situation with former chief producer Lee Soo Man and HYBE.

On February 17, a collective of 208 employees released the following statement:

Once former chief producer Lee Soo Man was in danger of having his illegal tax evading actions unveiled, he sold his shares to a competitor company that he used to speak ill of and ran away.
Us members of SM have been completely used in former chief producer Lee Soo Man’s illegal acts including fraudulent actions for his personal interests and tax evasion. We cannot be used by HYBE’s illegality and expediency again even before we begin the SM 3.0 project.
Thus, us 208 regular employees of SM Entertainment are releasing the following statement as we cannot hold our anger about former chief producer Lee Soo Man and HYBE’s unlawful collusion.
1. We will protect K-pop’s cultural diversity and SM’s distinct identity. We declare that SM’s culture should not be subordinated to HYBE’s capital.
2. We actively support and stand by CEO Lee Sung Su and COO Tak Young Joon’s self-reflection and their plans for SM 3.0 multi-producing. We also demand stronger protection for our artists and fans so they are not harmed.
3. We oppose HYBE’s hostile M&A and their expedient attempt to enter our board of directors. We will resist HYBE’s attempt to take over SM in an abnormal manner.
“Lee Soo Man deserted SM and Pink Blood and ran away, but we will remain at Seoul Forest and protect SM and Pink Blood.”
Collective of 208 SM Entertainment regular employees

 

[seungfloral]

Ohhhh it's bad
Ohhhhhhit's Bad bad
Honestly there were a LOT, and i mean A LOT of aweful companies throughout kpop history but it's a first for me to see the workers stand up against smth.

 

[eclipsoul]

 

[ichigohon]

Thought LSM's days of tax fraud were over I guess not lol. However, this is the exact reason I hate HYBE as a corporation. They jump at every single opportunity to eat their competition. I'm very happy that these SM employees have issued this statement as it is a clear statement of "Any attempts to make us a HYBE sub-label are against our CEO's and employee's wishes." I like how they point a clear finger at what HYBE is doing because they alongside LSM are the bad faith actors here. HYBE unlike Kakao substantially meddles within their sub-labels which are supposed to function independently of each other.

 

[RandAlThor]

Lol
the sky screaming.

but they are perfectly fine getting into bed with kakko.

and hanging with the CEO who at very least also conspired to defraud the investors (assuming his claims are true).

Dude claims this happened years ago ..
did he go to the KSEC (i assume the are the Security and exchange ppl in Korea? ) any policing org.?
and Still he was willing to let the 'Illegal' activity continue after the kakko deal....( which may also be illegal)


The Sale to HYBE happened far to fast to be spur of the moment. Few ppl other then musk will drop that kind of coin on a whim.
OBV they had been in some talks before.

We all saw how long it took to get twitter's sale done.

 

[Moguri]

Ohhhh it's bad
Ohhhhhhit's Bad bad
Honestly there were a LOT, and i mean A LOT of aweful companies throughout kpop history but it's a first for me to see the workers stand up against smth.

you are right, this is really shocking to see!

Especially as they're now all attacking LSM

 

[Moguri]

Lol
the sky screaming.

but they are perfectly fine getting into bed with kakko.

and hanging with the CEO who at very least also conspired to defraud the investors (assuming his claims are true).

I do not understand this very well, but maybe its a case where you chose the lesser evil?

Despite illegal things still going on, they are okay with the general direction of things?

 

[RandAlThor]

I do not understand this very well, but maybe its a case where you chose the lesser evil?

Despite illegal things still going on, they are okay with the general direction of things?

my read
What it is SM were selling brand new shares to Kakko for over 100 million dollars to get capital. they are convinced that they will get some of that.

Basically there is huge internal envy of HYBE just blowing up within sm. So The ee's want to be the biggest again so they want to be part of KaKKo one of the biggest companies in Korea. But its short sighted they (kakko) are not music people.

What would be a good example ... think of Microsoft or apple buying Disney. they have no idea how to do the stuff the company does all they care about is if it makes money.

and that example is still not quite right.

But Kakko is a bad fit. sure there would be a short term bump in stock prices. But they would be zero help with the massive changes they were just going to pull out of thin air. which i was mocking from the moment he announced them.

SM does need to transition to a future with out its long term creative team who will die sooner rather than later. Doing that they are better served working with companies who know that business and not just bags of money that they will want back.

 

[dnb]

You all know what this means, right?

Red Velvet comeback!

EXO comeback!

Look over here, not there!

 

[ani07]

I hope hybe is realizing that this is not good for their image to work with lsm and let sm ft alone.

 

[RandAlThor]

You all know what this means, right?

Red Velvet comeback!

EXO comeback!

Look over here, not there!

At least they will blame it all on this any way.

 

[RandAlThor]

I hope hybe is realizing that this is not good for their image to work with lsm and let sm ft alone.

They had to know going in this was going to be a scorched earth deal.
Cuz they jumped in stupid fast so there must have been talks ongoing before this.

 

[ani07]

They had to know going in this was going to be a scorched earth deal.
Cuz they jumped in stupid fast so there must have been talks ongoing before this.

yeah but isnt this pretty dumb?

 

[RandAlThor]

yeah but isnt this pretty dumb?

Obviously they are convinced that Kakko is far far worse than any fall out from this.

 

[Moguri]

But Kakko is a bad fit. sure there would be a short term bump in stock prices. But they would be zero help with the massive changes they were just going to pull out of thin air. which i was mocking from the moment he announced them.

SM does need to transition to a future with out its long term creative team who will die sooner rather than later. Doing that they are better served working with companies who know that business and not just bags of money that they will want back.

But with money you can also hire or buy out talented people that help you solve the problems you face, I'm not sure why you are so convinced getting depended on another company is such a great idea

 

[HardcoreBLINK]

What's naevis position tho 👀

 

[RandAlThor]

But with money you can also hire or buy out talented people that help you solve the problems you face, I'm not sure why you are so convinced getting depended on another company is such a great idea

Money always comes with strings or leashes.

Sure the plan when ppl go for money is to do something. How much rope do ya have how soon until the money ppl want results?

Venture capital might have the least but the funds do not play alot with 20+ year old companies.
A bank would have the next they would not care as long as payments were made and the loan handled.

companies/people who invest 9 figures will want the money back and control over how the company runs.

Heck this whole deal started because an investment group that has 1% wanted more control and more money.

SM's ceo is the one who wants to be dependent on other companies with the move to Kakko.

BHS and LSM think its such a bad idea they joined forces overnight.

So far from what i saw HYBE was putting in money ppl and not creative control ppl . But i would assume both investors will interfere in creative content to some extent. My feeling is Kakko would do it more to get more money out of the fans.

At the end of the day everyone's complaint about SM is that they are the most corporate of the agencies and all about the money. I fail to see how getting into bed with a soulless mega corporation would make that better.

 

[Moguri]

What's naevis position tho 👀

Soloist?

 

[Moguri]

Money always comes with strings or leashes.

Sure the plan when ppl go for money is to do something. How much rope do ya have how soon until the money ppl want results?

Venture capital might have the least but the funds do not play alot with 20+ year old companies.
A bank would have the next they would not care as long as payments were made and the loan handled.

companies/people who invest 9 figures will want the money back and control over how the company runs.

Heck this whole deal started because an investment group that has 1% wanted more control and more money.

SM's ceo is the one who wants to be dependent on other companies with the move to Kakko.

BHS and LSM think its such a bad idea they joined forces overnight.

So far from what i saw HYBE was putting in money ppl and not creative control ppl . But i would assume both investors will interfere in creative content to some extent. My feeling is Kakko would do it more to get more money out of the fans.

At the end of the day everyone's complaint about SM is that they are the most corporate of the agencies and all about the money. I fail to see how getting into bed with a soulless mega corporation would make that better.

Its really difficult for me to judge those things, but weren't there rumors they had plans to appoint HYBE people to the board of directors like Bang PD himself and Min Hee Jin? Those are at least not money people

Also btw just got recommended this vid by YT earlier, I feel like you would like her takes (ignore the click bait title and thumb nail)

 

[the101]

While this sounds very dramatic, this is less than half of the employees at SM and I notice that no artist has spoken up here so this could clearly go either way and most are just sitting tight to see where it goes, not even the artists like Kangta and Boa who have some power and shares.

my read
What it is SM were selling brand new shares to Kakko for over 100 million dollars to get capital. they are convinced that they will get some of that.

Basically there is huge internal envy of HYBE just blowing up within sm. So The ee's want to be the biggest again so they want to be part of KaKKo one of the biggest companies in Korea. But its short sighted they (kakko) are not music people.

What would be a good example ... think of Microsoft or apple buying Disney. they have no idea how to do the stuff the company does all they care about is if it makes money.

and that example is still not quite right.

But Kakko is a bad fit. sure there would be a short term bump in stock prices. But they would be zero help with the massive changes they were just going to pull out of thin air. which i was mocking from the moment he announced them.

SM does need to transition to a future with out its long term creative team who will die sooner rather than later. Doing that they are better served working with companies who know that business and not just bags of money that they will want back.

Hmm. I disagree that it’s just about jealousy of Hybe. A big part of the concern within SM isn’t just about being the biggest, but specific tenets of the style. SM artists and many of the creatives working with them have always prided themselves on one of the company’s key points of difference: the emphasis on vocal training and ability, which is not something Hybe is focused on or interested in. If you look at a lot of the Blind comments from employees, this is more of the concern - sure they would like to be #1, but they also felt proud of the work they did and worry.

Its not about being the biggest but rather being stripped of that core point of difference - the same way people flex about being “for the arts, not the charts.” It’s also what you see the fanbases being most worried about aside from disbandment.

At the end of the day everyone's complaint about SM is that they are the most corporate of the agencies and all about the money. I fail to see how getting into bed with a soulless mega corporation would make that better.

Naw, that’s the complaint of people who don’t stan SM groups. Most stans of SM groups don’t care about that - all agencies are just about the money. What we all complain about is the piss poor management. For a company that’s quick to sell birthday necklaces and other useless merch, they continually understock albums for popular groups (thus making less money), struggle to manage multiple releases for their top selling with long delays (again making less money), don’t schedule or poorly manage tours (again making less money), stop giving af about their top groups and promoting them because they think they’re strong enough they don’t even need to bother (EXO, RV, NCT 127 at different points in time, making yes, less money) and don’t capitalize on CF or promotional opportunities that could - you guessed it, make more money - because of their arcane rules around timing. SVT, SKZ and Twice out there releasing multiple albums in a year while most SM groups are lucky to release one a year. Brand new idols have tons of CFs while idols that constantly trend on Naver for just farting are just now getting deals seven years into their career.

Ice Spice and Pink Pantheress are out there talking about NCT 127 and about to debut in the top 3 of the BB charts and not a person at the label made a noise at them until the fandom kept shouting at them about it and I would bet $$ they’ll do fuckall about it, like make a collabo track. 🤬

For a company that is trying to make money, they don’t try very hard in the ways they could be doing it. I don’t want an $80 sweatshirt that looks like something I could get on Redbubble. (Actually that’s insulting to redbubble.) I want you to give me more than 4 days notice that there will be a concert and tickets are going on sale. I want you to not be delayed on one of your breadwinner’s comebacks when they only have ONE a year - and to make sure you have all the members in the picture since it’s a 7 year old group and you’ve had a minute to learn it. I guarantee you’d see a lot more than $80 if you did those things. If Jaehyun can make sunglasses sell out at Prada, what could you do with an organized tour or album launch?

Atp I don’t really care if it’s Hybe or Kakao, as long as they do their job. The only thing I think that will be missed, regardless of which wins, is the ability to experiment. NCT went several years before making a profit and tho the groups are now the breadwinners and the gamble paid off, I do not think in a future state they would allow the time it took to get there and that will be missed. We won’t see another fx or NCT or aespa because it will be focused on safety and maximum profit margins UNLESS new owner decides to keep the label as the “lab” where they experiment with new things.