A South Korean music executive credited with creating popular K-pop group NewJeans denied allegations that she was trying to break her label away from Hybe, home to global sensation BTS, sending the K-pop giant’s shares tumbling on Friday.
The internal dispute at Hybe, South Korea’s biggest music firm, has wiped more than 12 percent off its share price since it became public on Monday and put a damper on expectations for an upturn from new releases by NewJeans, as well as the return of some BTS members from mandatory military service.
Hybe shares declined 4.95 percent on Friday, while the benchmark KOSPI ended more than 1 percent higher.
Photo: Reuters
On Thursday, Min Hee-jin, chief executive officer of the Ador label majority owned by Hybe, told a livestreamed event watched by millions of K-pop fans that she was not plotting to break away from the company, denying Hybe claims that she was leading plans to go independent.
Hybe launched an internal probe earlier this week, and has accused Min of breach of trust.
“I’m sorry for causing worry to the fans, artists, and the staff over what happened during the process of upgrading the multi-label” system, Hybe chief executive officer Park Ji-won said in a statement.
Min and other top executives own a 20 percent stake in Ador, while Hybe owns an 80 percent stake. The dispute is the latest to hit South Korea’s lucrative K-pop industry.
Last year, the takeover of SM Entertainment by South Korean social media giant Kakao, triggered an internal battle over management, and Fifty Fifty, a girl group behind TikTok hit Cupid, saw their careers fizzle out following a legal battle with their agency Attrakt.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
‘HUMAN NEGLIGENCE’: The fire is believed to have been caused by someone who was visiting an ancestral grave and accidentally started the blaze, the acting president said Deadly wildfires in South Korea worsened overnight, officials said yesterday, as dry, windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the nation’s worst-ever fire outbreaks. More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend, with Acting South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong reporting thousands of hectares burned and four people killed. “The wildfires have so far affected about 14,694 hectares, with damage continuing to grow,” Ko said. The extent of damage would make the fires collectively the third-largest in South Korea’s history. The largest was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. More than 3,000
RSS