[서울=뉴스핌] Reporter Lee Ji-eun = Group BTS’ management company Hive (formerly Big Hit Entertainment) is aiming at the mainstream music market in the United States by acquiring management companies that belong to the American pop stars Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande. With this opportunity, domestic artists are expected to become more active overseas, and interest is also focused on whether Hive will take a leap forward as a global entertainment beyond Korea.
◆ Hive acquires Ithaca Holdings in the US… “BTS Popularity Effective Use Case”
In a public announcement on the 2nd, Hive announced that its subsidiary Big Hit America will acquire 100% of Ithaca Holdings, which operates in various fields such as music, IT, film, and culture. The acquisition targets include the SB project led by Ithaca Holdings founder Scooter Brown and the Big Machine label group.
The acquisition volume is $1.05 billion (about 1.18 trillion won), the largest in the history of M&A by a domestic entertainment company, and is the first case of a Korean company’s acquisition of an overseas label.
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| [서울=뉴스핌] Reporter Lee Ji-eun = Hive acquired US management Ithaca Holdings. [사진=하이브, 이타카홀딩스 로고] 2021.04.06 [email protected] |
The SB project acquired by Hive includes large American pop star Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, J. Balbin, Demi Lovato, and Black Eyed Peas. Since there has been no precedent of having a management company that belongs to a pop star, which is said to be a domestic entertainment company, as a subsidiary, this merger and acquisition caused a tremendous topic.
In addition, the founder of Ithaca Holdings, Scooter Brown, was the person who discovered Justin Bieber and was known as the person who made him enter the United States when Psy received global attention for’Gangnam Style’. We have prepared a foothold for advancing.
Hive said, “Ithaca Holdings plans to accelerate the advancement of Hive’s domestic artists into the US market and strengthen their competitiveness in the global market based on their expertise in the US market and industry.”
Earlier, Hive succeeded in advancing into the US market as BTS, but the domestic entertainers Source Music (representative group girlfriend), Pledis Entertainment (Seventeen, NU’EST), and KOZ Entertainment (Zico Down) acquired during Big Hit. It is not too long to advance.
In addition, as BTS is proud of its influence by dominating the American music awards ceremony, it is criticized that Hive has used their popularity well to increase the size of the company as a whole.
Park Hee-ah, a popular music critic, said, “Hive has taken a very aggressive approach to expand its influence beyond the domestic market and to the overseas market. This acquisition is a strategy for the company’s next step, and an example of effectively using the popularity of BTS.” .
◆ Leap forward as a global entertainment company… “Entering the center of the American music market”
The combination of the two companies is evaluated as a shocking event in terms of the combination of global top artists. Three teams (#1 BTS, #8 Ariana Grande, #10 Justin Bieber) from the top 10 artists in global record music sales announced by the International Music Industry Association (IFPI) last year belong to Hive and Ithaca Holdings.
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| [서울=뉴스핌] Reporter Ji-eun Lee = Congratulatory video with Scooter Brown, CEO of Ithaca Holdings, BTS, Justin Bieber, etc. [사진=하이브] 2021.04.06 [email protected] |
Not only albums, but also on YouTube, the world’s largest video platform. The combination of Justin Bieber, the world’s best artist with 62 million YouTube subscribers, and Ariana Grande with about 50 million YouTube subscribers each, is a powerful force in the global music market, where the penetration of social channels and video content is increasing. It is expected to be.
In addition, Ithaca Holdings’ strong network in the U.S. market, and its expertise in markets and industries give Hive the momentum to rapidly expand its share in the U.S. market.
This acquisition makes it easier for Hive artists to enter the U.S. than before. In addition, it became a little easier to approach the mainstream music market in the US, which had a high entry barrier. However, the criticism that it is unreasonable to predict the’Grammy Prime Minister’ with a high wall still prevails.
Critic Park said, “It is impossible to correlate the progress of the Grammy Award and Hive,” he said. “However, it seems that artists who grew up in the home of pop will be able to get close to the pop market by jumping into Hive’s artist album.”
Popular music critic Jung Min-jae said, “Because Grammy conducts the entire process at the recording academy, it seems difficult to predict even the Grammy award due to this acquisition. However, by choosing a scooter brown, Hive has created a base for working with local American workers. “It means the most,” he said.
He added, “I think it should be said that Hive spent a lot of money and entered the center of the American pop music market. Scooter Brown wanted to sell Ithaca, but they also have a stable parent company, so I think it was a win-win for each other.” .