[문화공작소] Justin Bieber’s management company’s Hive and BTS portfolio prepared after joining the military: 100-year-old partner Bridge Economy

Now it is not just a K-pop artist company.

Hive (HYBE, chairman Bang Si-hyuk), who started from BTS’s agency Big Hit Entertainment, is gaining weight by swallowing up global companies with aggressive expansion.

This year, Hive, which surprised the music industry by acquiring Naver’s VLive business unit and forming a strategic partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest music and record distributor, changed its name from’Big Hit’ to’Hive’, a global entertainment company. The acquisition of Ithaca Holdings in the United States once again brought the industry’s attention. After expanding from a K-pop artist agency to an IT platform company, it is poised to grow into a global company.

Hive announced on the 2nd that it would acquire 100% of Ithaca Holdings through a public announcement. The acquisition targets include the management company SB Project, led by Ithaca Holdings founder Scooter Brown, and the Big Machine label group.

Hive’s big picture can be said to have been drawn since it made a total investment of 70 billion won in YG Plus, a subsidiary of YG Entertainment, along with its subsidiary BNX. Scooter Brown is a producer who discovered the world-famous Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, and in 2012 and 2014, singer Psy and CL, who belonged to YG at the time, succeeded in entering the US. Scooter Brown, who has already seen the potential of the K-pop industry through YG, is drawing a bigger picture with Hive using YG as a stepping stone.

According to Hive, Scooter Brown joins Hive’s board of directors, and Scott Boseta of the Big Machine label group remains the group’s CEO. In addition, major executives and employees of Ithaca Holdings and their artists participate in the capital increase of Hive, strengthening the cooperative relationship between the two companies.

Hive explained that he liked Ithaca Holdings’ artist branding for this acquisition.

Hive Bang Si-hyuk, chairman of the board of directors, said, “This partnership with Ithaca Holdings is a new challenge that no one has ever imagined. “We hope to see the infinite possibilities of Hive and Ithaca Holdings, which will open up a new paradigm in the music industry in a different dimension than ever before.”

CEO of Scooter Brown emphasized the value of Hive’s last K-pop incubation system and curation capabilities. CEO Scooter Brown said, “This is the starting point where Hive’s innovative system and curation capabilities are applied to the beginning of an artist career in the United States. “It will be recorded as a monumental outcome that will all of us innovate the music industry, make history and change the game.”

The merger and acquisition is expected to accelerate the market for Hive’s domestic artists to enter the US. With the revision of the Military Service Act, BTS’ military enlistment was postponed to 2023, but Hive, who still had a high dependence on sales for BTS, could strengthen the global competitiveness of singers affiliated with Tomorrow by Together, N Hyphen, Seventeen and Zico through Ithaca Holdings. Seems to be.

Reporter Cho Eun-byul [email protected]