Photo: BTS. Credit: HYBE.
HYBE, the new name for Big Hit Entertainment 빅히트 엔터테인먼트 best known for being the production company for K-pop megastars BTS 방탄소년단, will acquire a 100% stake in Ithaca Holdings, whose management clients include Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato. The deal follows the successful IPO of HYBE on KOSPI in October 2020. (See previous coverage, “Big Hit IPO Soars.”)
Ithaca Holdings is led by Scooter Braun, a 39 year old music executive with deep ties to the K-pop industry. (Braun’s 2012 tweet of Gangnam Style was one of the initial sparks that led to PSY 싸이’s hit going ultra-mega-viral.) HYBE will pay approximately KRW 1.2t (USD 1b) to acquire Ithaca Holdings, and receive a capital injection from some Ithaca executives and stars including Bieber and Grande - making them shareholders in the new company along with the seven men of BTS.
