CJ ENM will reportedly be acquiring SM Entertainment after an agreement was reached to transfer Lee Soo Man‘s shares.
According to an exclusive report from Maeil Kyungjae, an agreement was reached for CJ ENM to acquire SM Entertainment as early as October 22. CJ ENM will be acquiring an 18.73% stake in the company, which was previously held by Lee Soo Man. CJ ENM valued SM Entertainment between ₩3.00 trillion KRW (about $2.55 billion USD) and ₩4.00 trillion KRW (about $3.40 billion USD), as they have purchased the majority of Lee Soo Man’s stake for between ₩600 billion KRW (about $510 million USD) to ₩700 billion KRW (about $595 million USD).
CJ ENM will continue to entrust Lee Soo Man with overseeing SM Entertainment, and he will be in charge of overall operations with SM Entertainment’s content. The two sides are continuing discussions on whether to merge CJ ENM and SM Entertainment’s music business together. Lee Soo Man will be handing over the majority of his shares, but will still retain a portion of them.
Neither SM Entertainment nor CJ ENM have confirmed the report yet.
