Korean tech giant Kakao wins the SM Entertainment weeks-long takeover battle with HYBE

South Korean tech giant Kakao has officially won the SM Entertainment weeks-long takeover battle against HYBE Corp., the firm behind top music band BTS.

HYBE said on March 12 that it will “discontinue the acquisition process […] after observing that the market has been showing signs of overheating due to competition with both Kakao and Kakao Entertainment,” something that it said could “damage shareholder value.”

According to Variety, earlier this week, Kakao made an offer of whopping KRW150,000 per share to existing shareholders, worth close to $1 billion for a 35% stake in SM. That easily trumped HYBE’s open market offer of KRW120,000 to buy a further 25% of SM’s shares and drove SM’s share price to a new high of KRW147,800 at the close of trading on Friday.

On Sunday, HYBE officials stated that it had “discussed the matters with Kakao and reached an agreement to suspend the process of acquiring SM’s management rights. Concurrently, the two companies agreed to cooperate on matters related to their platforms.” Meanwhile, Kakao also shared a statement informing that they will continue to buy SM shares through March 26, as planned under its tender offer.

Kakao and HYBE were embroiled in a battle for control over SM Entertainment since the beginning of February when HYBE bought around 15% stake in SM from Lee Soo Man. However, Kakao management will now have full control over SM. As per the report, “HYBE will no longer put forward candidates for SM’s board of directors at a shareholder meeting scheduled for March 30.”

SM also issued a statement Sunday writing, “We will push for the SM 3.0 strategies with speed and fulfill our future vision to become a global entertainment company centered on fans and shareholders.”

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