Kakao lost the war against Hybe over SM, because it underestimated Lee Sooman.
Among other reasons, Sooman didn't want to sell SM to Kakao, because Kakao had a singer who is the arch-enemy of SM over all these years.
In the long history of world, no one has survived for more than decade without contributing anything to an organization. IU is probably the only person who was able to get away with contributing nothing to KPop for more than 10 years, and was able to freeload and coattail into its successes without doing anything.
KPop is a generous field and KPop fans allowed Lee Jieun to continue contributing nothing to KPop and maintain her hostile attitude against all of the KPop acts for so long.
But now her domestic image and her unrelenting hostility against KPop is hurting Kakao's potential to expand further to the world.
I think that if Kakao wants to expand further, it will have to get rid of its longest-lasting singer.
Sooman was criticized about his preferential treatment of BoA and Gangta. Gangta is a bit quiet after he got into some trouble a couple years ago, but BoA's pet project Got the Beat was not received well this time.
But at least Gangta and BoA contributed to KPop's advance to the overseas.
Kakao is somewhat treating Lee Jieun the same way. Lee Jieun has nothing to promote the unity of the Kakao-held acts, unlike BoA who always tried to encourage fellow SM acts. To this day Lee Jieun has NOT greeted Cho Seungyeon (Woodz) who had entered Edam, a company she used to own, although she had all the time to travel to Japan with an actor.
Kakao Entertainment could sell its Edam Entertainment shares to Hybe or someone else, wash its hands on Lee Jieun and continue to buy other acts since without Lee JIeun it would not have a domestic image.
I think this might be the best time for Kakao Entertainment to say goodbye to the 1,344 years old singer, who will be left in the cold . It is not her fault that she has to be cast out ; business is business and she is a huge detriment for any company Kakao wants to acquire because of her domestic image, so I think she has to go if Kakao wants to be a global entertainment company.
