More artists terminate contracts with HYBE amid suspicious Scooter Braun "rumors" and "stock sales"

Article: "Poured 1 trillion won... Ariana Grande, HYBE "breakup" rumors

Source: Joongang Ilbo

Ariana Grande and others are parting ways with HYBE America.

On the 21st, foreign media Billboard reported, "Ariana Grande has parted ways with Scooter Braun. She has been with his company Ithaca Holdings under SB Projects since 2013."

Rumors of a breakup with SB Project star Justin Bieber are also circulating however according to Billboard officials, both parties denied and stated the rumors "are not true."

Rumors of artists terminating contracts with Ithaca Holdings are continuing. Earlier this year, Idina Menzel left and reports surfaced last month that Demi Lovato is also looking for a new agency. 

If Ariana leaves, HYBE's 1 trillion investment will be colorless. HYBE acquired Ithaca Holdings at 3x the valuation for "accounting reasons" however it seems they won't be able to avoid criticisms that the acquisition did not lead to meaningful collaboration and wasn't worth the money. HYBE acquisition was to secure a foundation for future growth through securing a global artist lineup, achieving economies of scale by combining Ithaca with HYBE's artist pool and expanding the business through mutual sharing of the owned IP. However, the expected collaboration with HYBE artists has yet to materialize. There was also speculation they would enter Weverse, but that has yet to materialize either. Only Justin Bieber has made one video appearance at their 2022 Weverse Concert. 

Chairman Bang Si-hyuk revealed "that he was seeking various M&A plans to increase the company's scale and stated that their first goal to obtain presence in the US music market could not be ignored." As a result, Scooter Braun took office as CEO of HYBE America in January and as his first step, acquired QC Media Holdings with famous hip hop artists Migos, Lil Baby for 314 billion won.  

While the size of the company has grown, it seems that the internal stability of the company has yet to be handled. Foreign media Variety wrote an article titled "What the hell happened to Scooter Braun's empire?" and stated, "Scooter Braun has only been indirectly involved in the careers of his artists in recent years. Despite Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande's relative inactivity in recent years, as CEO valued at 11 billion, he probably hasn't had time to get involved."

Scooter Braun also took the unfortunate step of selling large amount of stock as a registered executive. In May and June, he sold 31,588 shares (267,360 won/share) and 68,500 (270,070 won/share) after hours, and realized a profit of 27 billion won. In the aftermath of this, on June 2nd, when Scooter Braun sold the stock during after-hours trading, HYBE stocks fell up to 5% in the intraday. 

Following growing rumors, Scooter Braun posted a rebuttal joke on his Twitter on the 23rd stating, "Breaking news.. I'm no longer managing myself."

Meanwhile HYBE has gone "silent" and has yet to reveal a position regarding Ariana Grande's breach of contract.

1. [+1,435, -257] 'Poured 1 trillion won into a USB... Kim Jong-un breaks up with Moon Jae-in..'
2. [+234, -6] HYBE are the ones that earned the most off of Scooter Braun's pension.. NCsoft had a similar case with Garrett in the past. Probably thought of a way to set the stage for advancement and put up a good fight through the stock price.
3. [+205, -25] I bet Bang Si-hyuk already shorted or sold his stocks too.. if the stock crashes he'll just buy back in at a lower price. Who knows, maybe he's already bought it 3 times using slush funds they created for this reason. Anyway.. there's something fishy.
4. [+90, -1] Summary: HYBE grew in size using domestic funds from our country but Bang Si-hyuk invested 1 trillion won into a useless American label. But as famous artists continue to leave, they won't be able to recover the investment.
5. [+85, -1] ?? What? I guess they forgot the money they were able to earn because of BTSㅎㅎㅎ
6. [+83, -4] Is this a comedy? Knowing Ariana Grande's character as the type to leave her agency anytime they still believed in him and threw in 1 trillion won?!
7. [+64, -2] BTS kept them afloat and put some wind on their sails only for them to reinvest that  money by throwing it all to the U.S. Ah.. even American Jews are smarter than that.
8. [+60, -2] An agency that lost sight of their roots that were created by the ARMY fandom. They got arrogant and became ignorant mistakenly thinking things would turn out great now they're getting hit with a boomerang. Real ARMY all over the world can't wait until Bangtan leaves that sh** agency.. hoping for an announcement soon.
9. [+55, -4] Bang Si-hyuk is a great example of hitting jackpot through luck. What else has he achieved besides Bangtan? Anyone else with that money would've done infinitely better than anything he's been able to do.
10. [+50, -2] This is an example of a small-medium company CEO with zero management skills that ended up managing a company too big for his breeches... what else did people expect to happen?!
11. [+46, -2] So all the domestic capital earned from our country got sent overseas and became a waste..
12. [+45, -2] There are rumors Justin Bieber fired his entire management team but he bought the company for 1 trillion won for Bieber and Ariana who are now leaving? On top of that, Scooter himself is a scammer with rumors of defrauding his artists, Spotify, and s*x scandals.. how the hell is going to explain all this?
13. [+42, -2] All the money earned off BTS wasted! A boss that throws money everywhere thinking the company is his and became big because of him. 
14. [+14, -0] Looks like HYBE got scammedㅋㅋㅋㅋ