BTS agency acquires Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings for $1.05 billion

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

South Korea's HYBE Co Ltd, formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment and the manager for K-pop supergroup BTS, is to acquire music executive Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings in a $1.05 billion deal.

The merger brings together BTS, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and other artists under one roof for management, label services and publishing.

Ithaca Holdings CEO Scooter Braun will join the board of HYBE and Scott Borchetta will remain CEO of Big Machine Label Group, HYBE said in a statement on Friday.

HYBE said in a separate regulatory filing that its unit Big Hit America will pay 1.19 trillion won ($1.05 billion) for the merger, including cash payments to existing shareholders and creditors of Ithaca Holdings LLC.

In a second filing HYBE said it would issue new shares worth 182 billion won to be allocated to Braun, Borchetta, Grande, Bieber and others.

Artists of both companies will participate in HYBE's capital increase, to further strengthen the ties between the two companies, HYBE said in its statement.

As part of the transaction, Carlyle Group Inc will sell its significant minority stake in Ithaca Holdings, after initially investing in the company in 2017, the statement said. (Reuters)

According to Forbes, HYBE CEO Bang Shi-hyuk now is a billionaire with a net worth of $2,3 billion.

Here are 10 new IPO Billionaires in 2021 https://t.co/M4ULRcqhrs #ForbesBillionaires

— Forbes (@Forbes) April 8, 2021

Source: HYBE Labels, Korea Times, Forbes Twitter

Omona, do you think we should eat the rich? Can BTS still rely on the underdog image they've developed?

Comments

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

oh wow. this is huge.
kpop artists getting globally popular was crazy enough to see, but now a k-ent company buying out some of the biggest names in pop worldwide... damn.
especially since most kpop artists seem to love bieber and grande. now they're bts' cousins.
the line between "kpop" and just "pop" is disappearing.

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

yeah! personally i am against billionaires/billionaire companies, but an asian company buying an american company with some of pop's biggest acts is giving me some satisfaction nevertheless

[rennehollic.livejournal.com]

This is huge!
Damn big hit making money moves (I hate myself)

Also, will this mean Ariana Grande and BTS will collaborate?
She usually likes to collab with the IT groups, maybe?

[mortkero.livejournal.com]

Does anyone still think of them as underdogs? They've been big for years now

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

a lot of their fans still do! they keep referring to them starting from the bottom etc. and now that they're active in the u.s., they use the same narrative, despite them being huge

[mortkero.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

that's a narrative you can milk forever, apparently. i don't like seeing artists brag about their success, in a song or otherwise, but it does go down a little bit smoother if they actually have had some struggle in the past.

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

I don't really care if fans doing it because that's whatever. What bothers me is when I see it in like news articles I'm like "noooooo please do a little more research"

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

i kind of care because some fans act as though this narrative is still playing out to a certain extent in korean media, which is just ridiculous because everyone wants them in korea, c'mon, and they also act as though this struggle has been unique to bts when there's tons of other groups that have not been respected in their appearances on shows in korea because of their nugu (company) status. moreover, bts did pretty well from the start as a group, winning rookie of the year at one of the main award shows...

i do see the narrative still working for their us/western promotions because of the racism and sexism engrained in western media's handling of an asian boy group with a majority of female fans.

i say this as a long time fan of bts! they did start from the bottom and have gone through tough times, that should not be denied, but the power balance has shifted now. i just get annoyed by some army who are not invested in kpop aside from bts and the victim complex AND superiority complex they put on bts as a group and army as a fandom

sorry for this rant! i also agree that in general many (western) news articles about bts and kpop in general are definitely underresearched and rely on stereotypical ideas on kpop

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

Please don't apologize for rants, I read the whole thing lol

OK, I see what you mean regarding fans relying on it. In my head I was thinking "if it's just fans talking to each other what difference does it make" but since their fan base is so big it influences the way everyone sees them.

I agree there's a difference between "they started small and look how far they've come", which is accurate, and "they are still from a small company and no one respects them," which is false. And I think this is where relying too much on what's happening in the U.S. can get people because yeah, they are known in the U.S. but they aren't mainstream or respected by a lot of people for multiple reasons, including racism. (Also there's no need to gain the respect of racists.) But in Asia and all over the world they are absolutely well known and extremely successful. That's not diminished by whatever we're doing over here in the U.S.

I also think some of this posturing by fans isn't genuine and is done for attention. They know just saying something like "BTS paved the way, your faves could never even with big 3 privilege" will get a lot of people mad/engaged even if they don't actually believe it or care. Idk I'm less bothered by fans trying to hype up their group than trying to deflect criticism, that's a bigger problem for me.

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

Idk I'm less bothered by fans trying to hype up their group than trying to deflect criticism, that's a bigger problem for me.
definitely! i also think we can hype up a group but at the same time be critical of them and the fandom. but that's perhaps what omona is a better place for instead of twitter :)

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

definitely! i also think we can hype up a group but at the same time be critical of them and the fandom.

Yeah, I wish more people would take this view! I feel like every time something negative happens with a group, it's easy to 1) get defensive or 2) retreat further into fandom so you don't see any criticism. I don't think either is really helpful.

[au9042.livejournal.com]

Totally agree with you!
I find the "support no matter what and never criticize" thinking always uncomfortable.

[frequency.livejournal.com]

do you think we should eat the rich?

always!! i'm waiting for the "trickle down" effect economists always talk about 🙄

[myrrhcat.livejournal.com]

made famous by siwon's bff ronald reagan! how topical.

[milktov.livejournal.com]

😂 this made me laugh out loud

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

Can BTS still rely on the underdog image they've developed?

I like BTS but I feel like this hasn't been true for a really long time lol and that's OK! They just definitely haven't been underdogs for a while. (This isn't directed to you OP, I just.... whenever I read or hear reports that they came from a small company I just wish the reporter would follow up with "and now that company is enormous and very powerful")

[radowan.livejournal.com]

Can BTS still rely on the underdog image they've developed?

With the latest Grammy situation the narrative is getting stronger than ever I feel like. I am pretty sure their fanbase will milk that narrative till the cows come home. It's stale and boring and kinda dumb but doesn't bother me much. It's certainly less cringe than the sob stories of groups produced by big companies that got instantly successful.

Absolutely eat the rich and distribute that obscene wealth. I'm ready.

[jackieee94.livejournal.com]

I love them but let’s be honest they stopped being underdogs years ago. I hope this acquire gives us an Ariana collab and not Bieber..

[rosiemotleymind.livejournal.com]

Listen if we have to eat the rich I will forever include all of BTS in it 😂 I never imagined kpop growing to this extent that a company can gain these massive holdings in the US from a major industry player. I don’t think the underdog title is reserved for them at this point. Literally one of Korea’s darlings lol.

I’m wondering what BH’s business efforts are going to look like in 5-10 years. How fast that company is to profit off of EVERYTHING is impressive in a Elon Musk kind of way (this is shade)

[au9042.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, everytime I see the word billion I think "Tax that As*"!

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

It makes me uncomfortable how huge Big Hit has become in the past 5-6 years.

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

They’re not underdogs and they haven’t been for years now, but that won’t stop their fanbase’s obsessive clusterfuck of a superiority/inferiority/victim complex. And sadly imo they haven’t developed much of a new identity other than ‘we’re super popular and we love all of you so much, please pay love us back’ (and I say this as someone who loved them SO much at one point and still likes the members quite a lot). It’s a very odd case in kpop where their own astronomical success has made a lot of their original artistic identity obsolete. But it’s clearly working for them so what the hell do I know lol

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

clusterfuck of a superiority/inferiority/victim complex
yeah this is also what i really struggle with in the fandom (on twitter mostly) and which is really taking away the fun i have in stanning them sometimes!

could you explain a little bit more what you mean with the rest of your comment if you would like? do you mean that they lost what made their original sound so interesting or something else? i think some of their songs still relate to their earlier songs well whereas others... but maybe i'm misinterpreting

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

I accidentally wrote an essay! I’ll post but no pressure to read/respond, it's hella long lol

I think what made a lot of fans feel so connected to Bangtan earlier on was that they were telling their own stories in a relatively real way that hardly any other idols in kpop history have done. They made music about their own insecurities and anxieties and identities and were about as socially critical as idols can get. A lot of kpop material is highly artificial and that’s fine, great even, but BTS harnessed a relatively authentic underdog narrative that felt uniquely relatable and vulnerable and people really responded to that. Like I really started paying attention to them with Blood Sweat Tears but it was their more personal material, esp from the HYYH series, that made me love them. I think that’s true for a lot of fans.

Then they exploded into a literally unprecedented level of success and popularity and just kept going. So all those messages about being underappreciated and humbled and lonely and looked down on don’t really make sense for them anymore when they’re literally more popular and beloved than anyone in the history of their genre. They’ve become the intl faces and greatest successes of a society and industry that they said was holding them back. Obviously they still have vulnerabilities and anxieties as human beings but as artists they can’t really be who they once were. If anything, the problems in their life probably now come from being TOO successful and famous but obviously they can’t really be constantly complaining about how they’re too successful and famous.

Plus they have to maintain an insanely obsessive fanbase of dozens of millions of people, which typically means trying to avoid anything controversial. For example I thought there was a big change in tone between the 2016-17 vs. 2018-19 Festas or Burn the Stage vs. Bring the Soul, they’re a lot more natural and honest earlier on. Now they’re under too much pressure and scrutiny and have too much to lose. So what they talk about now is how much they love their fans. And musically, MOTS Persona (aka the fansong album) is where this turning point happens imo. By now practically every other song they release is a fansong or directly addressed to their fans. And there’s nothing “wrong” with that but personally I think it's disappointing and boring tbh. I was really excited when MOTS 7 had some more ambiguity and honesty and a lot of throwbacks but then they conquered the world with the cotton candy fluff of Dynamite and then BE was basically Persona 2.0 imo so I think that’s the direction they’re going in now. So I guess that’s what I mean by their own success making their original identity obsolete. It doesn’t totally negate the meaning of their earlier songs (and I’ll always love those) but they don’t really resonate as much bc they were about who Bangtan were at that time and Bangtan are not really those people anymore, or at least not at all in the same circumstances. It’s no one’s fault but it is what it is.

+ There’s also the whole aspect that Big Hit or Hybe or w/e clearly has massive financial goals so they’re leaning harder and harder into monetizing Army’s cultish loyalty and spending more and more energy telling them how much they love them and how important they are while releasing $50 album reissues for them to buy. They may not be “fake boyfriends” like most idols are (which was another thing I liked about them) but at some point they became “fake best friends” and I find it pretty off-putting sometimes.

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

that was a great read, thank you! a really great analysis that formulated well what i have been seeing as well the past few years and what i have been missing from them, also explaining why i am not as invested in them as much as i used to. i tried to explain the same to one of my non-army friends: bts used to write about their personal experiences (and sometimes would even locate those in bigger societal critique, which i appreciated, when i got into them in 2014 and which i still appreciate in their older work), but the more famous they've become, the more distant they felt, on the one hand because they are rich and famous, but also because i feel like that, to appeal to more people, they have 'watered down' (to say it very crudely) their songs to make it appeal to the masses. in their recent albums, there have always been tracks where i would find and enjoy some old bangtan sounds, but i think black swan was my last true highlight from them because that track felt so personal

[em-cavey.livejournal.com]

Aww thank you <3 I clearly have a lot of thoughts about bts lol

Mte, they are definitely skewing towards being as broadly appealing as possible and have lost some of their uniqueness in the process. And I completely agree, Black Swan was amazingggg and MOTS 7 definitely had some gems (Shadow was maybe Yoongi’s best solo track imo). I was hoping that would be more of their direction going forward but I guess not, at least not for now. But who knows what the next cb will be like

Btw, if you haven’t seen the BTS You Quiz episode yet, I totally recommend it! I thought it was really well done and it reminded me a lot of why I loved them so much.

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

they're rumored to be coming back in may i think? i'm looking forward but also a bit apprehensive. agree with you on shadow!!

i'm still catching up on run bts (also reminds me every time why i love this group so much) but bts you quiz is next!!

[milktov.livejournal.com]

If Big Hit becomes the Viacom of pop music... well I guess we have new overlords I guess.

Even if it's an Asian company taking over an American company– it's still a company, and it still is focused completely on profit, not actual positive impact on the world. I'm just not expecting there to be a cultural shift from this or anything. Just the usual capitalist fuckery.

Also the conflation of Big Hit and BTS is really persisting out there– I personally find it hard to support a company even if I like individuals in the company or the product it produces.
I feel like I'm being a buzzkill for some ppl when I say that, but like, these companies don't care about the values you care about– they're here for money and will screw anyone over for it, even BTS if they suddenly lost their money-making potential :/ for our own sakes, we shouldn't put any emotional investment in companies cause they certainly aren't actually caring about us

[broadcities.livejournal.com]

amazing comment, thank you!!

[dior-chic.livejournal.com]

Thank you, you’re right.