According to the investment banking industry (IB) it was announced that CJ ENM is a perferred bidder to acquire SM Entertainment and CJ ENM plans to sign a contract by the end of the year. They planning to take over Lee Soo Man's 18.73% shares of the company. Lee Soo Man's stake is worth between 600 - 700 billion won out of SM Entertainment's total worth of 3.4 Trillion won.
Lee Soo Man will continue to be in charge of SM's head producer in charge of the overall operation and content business. It is still being discussed as to whether CJ ENM's music business division will be separate from SM Entertainment.
In addition to the new acquisition, CJ ENM owns MNet, TvN, CJ Films, Studio Dragon, TVing, CJ CGV, CJ CheiJedang, and Olive Young.
Previous candidates for buyers included Kakao Entertainment, Naver, and HYBE. Currently, the largest shareholders of the company after Lee Soo Man is Korea Investment Management (4.455), Alibaba (3.71%), and National Pension Service (3.68%).
SM Entertainment was founded in 1995 by Lee Soo Man and has become one of the best-known K-pop companies with artists such as BoA, TVXQ, EXO, SHINEE, Super Junior, SNSD, Red Velvet, NCT, aespa, and so on.
Meanwhile, SM's idol to fan communication platform Dear U is expected to be listed on KOSDAQ on November 10.
