SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man (71), former executive producer, and SM Co-CEO Lee Sung-soo (44) are at odds over SM’s management rights.
CEO Lee is the niece of the widowed wife of former general manager Lee Soo-man. The wife of former general manager Soo Lee passed away in 2014 following a long struggle with the disease. CEO Lee has been in charge of managing fans at SM since he was a college student. He formally joined the company as an A&R employee in 2005 and was promoted to A&R team leader in 2009.
Songs released in 2009, SHINee’s ‘Boy Meets Girl’ and ‘The Name I Loved’ were listed as composers and lyricists. From 2015 to 2020, she worked as the head of SM’s production headquarters. Since 2019 he has been representing SM USA. In 2020, he became SM Co-CEO along with CEO Tak Young-Jun.
They have been together for a long time, but recently, as the dispute over management rights of SM started in earnest, they stood on opposite sides of each other.
The full-fledged prelude to the dispute is following the SM shareholders’ general meeting in March 2022, when a candidate recommended by minority shareholders to check the former general manager of SM founder was selected as an auditor.
This is because SM minority shareholders were dissatisfied with giving copyright fees to Lee’s private company Like Planning. ‘Like Planning’ is a company that produces albums for singers under SM. They had a contract to receive up to 6% of SM’s annual sales as copyright fees. In response, shareholders insisted that this money should be saved and distributed to shareholders. Accordingly, SM terminated the contract with Like Planning, and the former general manager’s influence over SM decreased.
And on the 3rd, CEO Lee and co-CEO Tak Young-joon announced a new business plan, ‘SM 3.0’. It is said that the contract with the former general manager of the founder and SM will be terminated and only a shareholder will remain. In the meantime, he announced plans to build a ‘multi-producing system’ by establishing several in-house and independent labels, breaking away from the ‘single executive producer system’ that was led by the former general manager. And the co-representatives of SM will join hands with Kakao. Kakao bought SM’s newly issued shares and rose to become SM’s second-largest shareholder at once. On the 7th, Kakao bought a 9.05% stake in SM (approximately 217.1 billion won).
In response, former general manager Lee protested and launched a counterattack, such as taking legal action. On the 7th, the law firm Hwawoo, who acted as the legal representative for former general manager Lee, said, “Through provisional injunctions, we will fundamentally block illegal attempts by SM’s board of directors, and we plan to hold all civil and criminal responsibilities to directors who voted in favor of illegal resolutions.” ”he said. Lee, who was staying in the United States, hurriedly returned home through Incheon International Airport that day.
On the other hand, on the 16th, former general manager Lee expressed his position that “my heart hurts” regarding CEO Lee. He continued, “(CEO Sung-soo Lee) is the nephew of a wounded wife, and I have been seeing him since I was four years old. He is a good nephew who grew up in a family where his father is a pastor.”
※Weekly Chosun online article.
