China Entertainment Network News www.yule.com.cn On March 11, according to Korean media sources, KAKAO is about to acquire the shares of Lee Soo Man’s SM Entertainment, defeating CJ to become the new owner of SM Entertainment.
According to industry sources, KAKAO and SM have reached an agreement to acquire all the shares of the largest shareholder, Lee Soo Man, and will be officially announced soon. It is reported that the market has always designated CJ ENM as a strong original buyer, but as KAKAO Entertainment is actively considering the acquisition of SM Entertainment, the addition of the acquisition war tends to KAKAO.
The acquisition target is the 18.72% stake in SM held by the largest shareholder, Lee Sooman, the producer. According to industry sources, KAKAO paid SM Entertainment more than 2 to 3 times the current share price. Taking into account the closing price of SM Entertainment on the 10th, it is expected that KAKAO’s acquisition value will be close to 1 trillion won (about 5.1 billion yuan).
However, in response to this news, a KAKAO official said: “In order to strengthen the competitiveness of the global cultural information business, we have been discussing various plans such as business cooperation and share investment, but there is no concrete decision yet.”