South Korea’s HYBE said Friday (March 24) it will sell its stake in SM Entertainment, officially ending a bidding war between HYBE and the South Korean tech company Kakao for control of the K-pop agency that was key to the genre’s popularity and overseas expansion in recent years.
HYBE, home of superstar boy band BTS, said in a filing it will sell its roughly 15% stake in SM for nearly 564 billion won ($435 million) to Kakao, which earlier this month announced a tender offer aimed at acquiring up to 35% of SM Entertainment’s outstanding shares.
Kakao Entertainment owns Monsta X‘s K-pop record label, Starship Entertainment, as well as the South Korean music streaming app Melon, the North America-based webtoon company Tapas Entertainment and several media production companies. It’s a subsidiary of the tech conglomerate Kakao Corp.
HYBE acquired most of its shares in SM in February from SM…
