[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] While HYBE, an agency that owns popular groups such as BTS and Seventeen, has become the largest shareholder by buying a stake in SM Entertainment, negative public opinion is mounting within SM.

According to online on the 14th, a vote was held in the SM lounge of the office workers' community "Blind" on the 11th to ask about SM employees' thoughts on HYBE's acquisition of SM.

For voting, the current management of SM (Lee Sung-soo and Tak Young-joon), Kakao, HYBE, and Isu will choose the preferred questions among the two options.

By the afternoon of the 13th, 222 people participated in the vote, with SM's current management and Kakao receiving 190 votes (85.6%) and HYBE and Lee Soo-man receiving 33 votes (14.9%). 

 

It was interpreted that SM employees sympathized with the current management and expressed negative public opinion on HYBE's attempt to acquire SM.

Employees responded with anger, saying, "We feel like the tradition and history have been denied," "We had pride in SM, but it collapsed in a moment".

Earlier on the morning of the 10th, HYBE announced that it would acquire a 14.8% stake in former general manager Lee Soo-man, a major shareholder of SM, for 422.8 billion won. If the company then publicly purchases shares of minority shareholders and secures about 25 percent of the total number of shares issued, it will become the largest shareholder with a total stake of 39.8 percent in SM.

 

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