Min Hee Jin (ADOR CEO) vs HYBE drama post
Min Hee Jin Drama Summary
• Min Hee Jin owns only 20% of Ador, the rest belongs to Hybe
• She made plans to take over management rights of Ador
• Leaked health records of trainees
• Formed negative public opinions on other Hybe artists through media
• Approached artists'… pic.twitter.com/b93zSqLVkb
- paula⁷ (@sugatheartist) April 22, 2024
I am going to do my best to explain this at a very high level but honestly your best bet is to either (1) read the embedded post above or (2) comment solely based off vibes. I am not a kpop historian and if there's one word for this mess, it's shitshow.
KEY PLAYERS
- HYBE is a huge entertainment company/conglomerate that started first as Big Hit Entertainment (home to BTS) and is now the current company mothership to subsidiaries Big Hit Music (BTS), Source Music (formerly GFriend, currently LE SSERAFIM), Pledis Entertainment (Seventeen), Belift Lab (ILLIT), KOZ Entertainment (BOYNEXTDOOR), and ADOR (NewJeans). Bang Si-Hyuk is the CEO.
- ADOR is one of HYBE's subsidiary companies and home to NewJeans, the "brainchild" of Min Hee-Jin.
- Min Hee-Jin is CEO of ADOR (subsidiary of HYBE), creator of NewJeans, and former creative director for SM (one of the "big three" entertainment companies in South Korea). Min Hee-Jin herself reportedly holds either an 18% or 20% share in the company; HYBE holds 80% and reportedly ponied up 16.1B won (~11.7M USD) to establish ADOR in 2021.
- NewJeans is a five member girl group that debuted in 2022 under ADOR and is currently ADOR's only artist.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVENTS
Shit kicked off on Monday, April 22 when it was reported HYBE, the majority shareholder of ADOR, was (1) auditing ADOR, with particular focus on the actions of CEO Min Hee-Jin and other top executives and (2) requesting that Min step down as CEO, effective immediately.
Things quickly went to shit after that, with ADOR responding with a public letter in which the company alleged that:
- Belift Lab, another HYBE sublabel, ripped off NewJeans "in all aspects of entertainment activities including hair, makeup, clothing, choreography, photos, videos, and event appearances" when debuting ILLIT;
- ADOR had already raised the issue of ILLIT copying NewJeans with Belift and HYBE;
- HYBE's subsequent pursuit of both an audit and Min's dismissal as CEO were retaliatory;
- HYBE's accusations of Min attempting to "seize management rights" were "ridiculous";
- ADOR would "use all possible means and methods to protect the cultural achievements that NewJeans has worked for and to prevent further infringement due to copying"; and
- ADOR would announce its official position after speaking with the NewJeans members and lawyers.
The audit also allegedly turned up documents detailing Min's dealings with outside parties, including one in which she stated, "President Bang Si Hyuk copied me and created BTS". In another document, Min is alleged to have said, "ILLIT copied NewJeans, TWS copied NewJeans, and RIIZE also copied NewJeans."
This is still actively unfolding, so there will be more to come, but one of the biggest concerns being raised by fans at the moment is what will happen to NewJeans in all of this. As of right now, their comeback scheduled for next month is still going forward; however, the close relationship between NewJeans members and Min has led to fans sending protest trucks to HYBE urging the members to stay with HYBE in the end. While Min is still CEO of ADOR and has the ability to terminate the contracts of the NewJeans members, a substantial penalty fee would likely apply for early termination.
Today, it came out that all NewJeans members except for Hyein (who joined ADOR directly) were originally Source Music trainees and that the original plan was for NewJeans to be a Source Music group. Instead, Min asked to debut the group under a new label.
SOURCES: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10