Fans are expressing regret over the news that SM Entertainment's representative producer Lee Soo-man (69) is reportedly selling his shares.

Recently, rumors have been circulating in the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) market about representative producer Lee Soo-man's sale of his shares in SM Entertainment (hereinafter referred to as SM). The shares in question are Lee Soo-man's 18.73% stake in SM (4.39 million shares), and selling the entire stake would effectively mean handing over management control. Aside from the producer, the only other shareholder with over 5% in SM is Korea Investment Trust Management (5.04%).

Potential buyers for SM include Kakao Entertainment, CJ Group, Naver, and HYBE. SM maintains that nothing has been confirmed, but the competition to acquire the company is intensifying, causing its stock price to surge.

SM Entertainment, founded by representative producer Lee Soo-man in 1995, has nurtured leading K-pop idol groups and top singers, starting with the first-generation idol groups H.O.T. and S.E.S., followed by Shinhwa, TVXQ!, Girls' Generation, SHINee, f(x), EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, and aespa. Behind their success lies Lee Soo-man's unique sense and producing capabilities.

Hearing that representative producer Lee Soo-man might be transferring management control, fans who loved SM's distinctive musical color could not hide their disappointment.

Fans are pleading, "Sorry," and posting hashtags like "#ComeBackLeeSooMan" and "#LeeSooManComeBack," with comments such as, "He might have been strange at times, but he did far more good things," "SM without Lee Soo-man is not SM," "We still need the teacher," "What we said harshly before wasn't our true feelings. We were actually always grateful," and "Come back, there's still so much to do," urging Lee Soo-man to halt the sale of his shares.

Article Source: ⓒ매일경제

These are English translations of articles from our GTTOUR Japanese website.