Warner Korea offers 20billion won to buy Fifty Fifty

that is a lot of money

Quote from Daisy_Queen

This is the messiest fucking agency on earth, why are they leaking phone calls?

To prove that Warner was lying.

In case you forgot. Warner had confidently stated that they had no part in trying to acquire Fifty Fifty

this is getting messy...

Omg this is not looking good for the girls, knetz will eat them alive

Oh my, 16.7m

@Elon

this is basically a deathblow.

Unless they can prove the audio is fake or that the Attrakt CEO was abusing Fifty Fifty, this battle is his.

That offer number seems insane to me wow

Quote from Fluffers

this is basically a deathblow.

Unless they can prove the audio is fake or that the Attrakt CEO was abusing Fifty Fifty, this battle is his.

They can just not promote in Korea. It is not like they are doing well or making any money there. Just pay the contract termination fee, which will be less than $20mil, and leave all the mess behind.

Quote from Clmlrv

knetz were not on their side since day one, their image in korea is completely ruined

What a way to shoot yourself right in the foot, I was afraid that the company might ruin the group with bad promotions but this is totally unexpected, it sad because the girls are really talented but unfortunately for them they got swayed by pretty words.

what a mess…

I feel bad for the girls/group being dragged to this mess.

Quote from babyjinx1221

what a mess…

I feel bad for the girls/group being dragged to this mess.

i mean they also sued attrakt

I'd rather use that money to buy an established girl group.

Quote from Flowercrew

I'd rather use that money to buy an established girl group.

I don't think there's any hot group that'd sell for that little.

Quote from Fluffers

To prove that Warner was lying.

In case you forgot. Warner had confidently stated that they had no part in trying to acquire Fifty Fifty

I agree that that was what JHJ is clearly trying to do. But Warner didn't say that - JHJ accused Warner of illegally attempting to poach the members. If anything, if the call is real, all we know is Warner merely made a buyout offer to Attrakt. I doubt a global company like Warner could put out a stmt denying it if they were legally culpable, especially if JHJ sent them "evidence". Wouldn't make it past Warner's legal team. And for his part, JHJ wouldn't have had to backtrack after Warner responded. JHJ is succeeding in the court of public opinion though.

Quote from oneinamiyeon

I agree that that was what JHJ is clearly trying to do. But Warner didn't say that - JHJ accused Warner of illegally attempting to poach the members. If anything, if the call is real, all we know is Warner merely made a buyout offer to Attrakt. I doubt a global company like Warner could put out a stmt denying it if they were legally culpable, especially if JHJ sent them "evidence". Wouldn't make it past Warner's legal team. And for his part, JHJ wouldn't have had to backtrack after Warner responded. JHJ is succeeding in the court of public opinion though.

But they didn't say warner attempted to do it illegally. They said the third party was doing it illegally and they stated that Warner was a part of the negotiations, which Warner denied and this audio very clearly proves that's a lie.

Warner may not known it was illegal, but they were a part of the negotiations which they clearly said they were not.

Quote from Daisy_Queen

Is there a timeline for all this...?

Here

Quote from Pop inquirer

June 23, 2023 – ATTRAKT explains FIFTY FIFTY’s lack of promotions and their current legal battle against third parties

FIFTY FIFTY’s agency ATTRAKT released a statement explaining the group’s lack of promotions despite their global success.

In their statement, ATTRAKT mentioned that one of the members had developed a medical condition and had gotten treatment and surgery last May 2. According to the doctor, the recovery period was for at least one month and two months for the longest, which is the reason for their halting of FIFTY FIFTY’s promotions.

ATTRAKT also said that there were “external forces” that approached the FIFTY FIFTY members and were “enticing them to violate their exclusive contracts with us”.

June 25, 2023 – CEO Jeong Hong-joon hopes FIFTY FIFTY members will return to their agency ASAP

In an interview with Korean news outlet Sports Chosun, ATTRAKT CEO Jeong Hong-joon said that the agency was “receiving information about the identity of these external forces” and that they will be “revealed soon”.

He later on added, “Even now, what I’m most worried about is the FIFTY FIFTY members, who will be hurt by this situation. I hope that they will return as soon as possible to their agency and gradually move forward with the projects that we had been in the process of preparing, such as their American promotions.”

June 26, 2023 – ATTRAKT calls out Warner Music Korea as the “external force” that approached FIFTY FIFTY members, Warner Music Korea responds

ATTRAKT announced in a new statement that the third party who had approached the FIFTY FIFTY members was Warner Music Korea. Last June 26, they announced that the agency had sent a certification of contents to Warner Music Korea after learning that they were involved in discussions about “poaching” FIFTY FIFTY from them.

“We have already obtained material evidence of a clear attempt to illegally poach the FIFTY FIFTY members,” as said by ATTRAKT in a press release. The agency also requested the other party to release a “precise explanation” of their position.

It had been publicly announced earlier this year that ATTRAKT had signed a partnership with Warner Records to promote the girl group globally following their success with “Cupid.”

Later that day, Warner Music Korea responded to ATTRAKT’s claims with an official statement:

“Hello, this is Warner Music Korea.

We are informing you of our official stance regarding today’s statement by rookie girl group FIFTY FIFTY’s agency ATTRAKT.

First, as FIFTY FIFTY’s overseas distributor, Warner Music Korea has been working [with FIFTY FIFTY] since April 1, 2023. Since signing the contract, we have done our best to make the dazzling achievements of FIFTY FIFTY and their agency shine even brighter by mobilizing Warner Music Group’s abilities and network, so we are very sorry that such unfortunate suspicions were raised.

Warner Music Korea has done our best as a global distributor until now while respecting the opinions of the artists and artists’ agency, and we take pride in that this is demonstrated by various achievements.

ATTRAKT’s claims are groundless, and we are very regretful that they have sent [us] a certification of contents.

We sincerely ask you to refrain from spreading unconfirmed rumors as well as baseless and speculative reports in the future.

Thank you.”

June 27, 2023 – FIFTY FIFTY’s fan cafe shuts down and ATTRAKT’s statement regarding this

At around 3 P.M. KST last June 27, 2023, FIFTY FIFTY’s fan cafe had been shut down by an unauthorized external force. It had been recovered since then, and ATTRAKT released a statement ensuring better management and prevention in the future.

“Hello, this is ATTRAKT.

We would like to inform you about the attempted shutdown of the official FIFTY FIFTY fan cafe that occurred at around 3 P.M. KST today.

This was not done by us but was done due to the unauthorized account takeover by external forces. We have confirmed that they have uploaded the post which says they are going to shut down the official fan cafe.

The managing account for the official fan cafe has been recovered, ATTRAKT is taking action as quickly as possible to ensure a smooth fan cafe use and prevent any further re-occurences.

We would like to give our sincere apology for causing confusion to our fans.

Sincerely,

ATTRAKT.”

June 27, 2023 – ATTRAKT files criminal charges against its former co-CEO Ahn Sung-il (SIAHN)

On the same day as the girl group’s official fan cafe had been shut down (and recovered), ATTRAKT announced that they had filed a criminal complaint against its former co-CEO Ahn Sung-il (known as SIAHN), the CEO of creative content development group The Givers, and three other individuals.

As of writing, Ahn Sung-il’s LinkedIn profile still includes that he is still co-CEO of ATTRAKT and chief producer for FIFTY FIFTY.

ATTRAKT’s criminal complaint at the Gangnam Police Station were for fraud, breach of duty, and obstruction of business. The agency had accused Ahn Sung-il “of committing acts of fraud and obstruction of business including delaying the handover of work, deleting company email accounts, and deleting material related to past projects.”

“Furthermore, in the process of purchasing the song ‘Cupid’ from a foreign songwriter, The Givers did not provide ATTRAKT with information about the copyright purchase, and they secretly purchased about the copyright in their or their company’s name without our knowledge,” said ATTRAKT.

The agency ended their statement by saying that they may file additional criminal charges against the individuals, as they suspect them of having committed other illegal acts.

June 28, 2023 – FIFTY FIFTY members move to suspend their exclusive contracts with ATTRAKT

In a shocking turn of events, all four members of FIFTY FIFTY released an official statement through their legal representative law firm BARUN, announcing that they have filed an injunction to suspend the validity of their exclusive contracts with ATTRAKT, stating the latter’s violation of contract terms.

“This is an announcement from law firm BARUN, the legal representative of FIFTY FIFTY’s Saena, Keena, Aran, and Sio.

Through their legal representative, the four members filed an application for provisional disposition suspending the validity of their exclusive contracts to the Seoul Central District Court on June 19, and the trial is currently underway. This is due to the fact that ATTRAKT violated contract terms and took actions that resulted in the destruction of a relationship based on trust.

The members have not responded as the trial is underway. The legal representative pointed out several problems that have occurred until now and sent a correspondence requesting correction, but ATTRAKT is discrediting the members through continuous media coverage without attempting to explain regarding the requests, so we released this statement.

Despite our young age, the four members have tried our best to think and behave independently. After sufficient discussion with our parents, we came to raise the issue with the help of our legal representative. Nevertheless, ATTRAKT is not listening to the voices of the members, saying that it was an attempt to extort the members by an external force and arbitrarily disclosing the reason for a member’s surgery without consulting with her while they are unable to clearly explain their breach of contract. The members were highly disappointed and frustrated seeing this situation.

The members raised issues about various circumstances in which ATTRAKT did not fulfill contractual obligations, such as non-transparent settlement and the unilateral attempt to enforce [scheduled activities] despite [the members] conveying their poor health conditions.

We would like to make it clear that this is an independent decision by the four members in unison without any intervention of a third party.

The members are well aware of how important this period is and are aware of the concern of many people around them. When we first started training, we were determined to become artists who could make a positive influence. We, the four members, did not go along with or maintain silence about wrongdoings.

Without falsehood and without external pressure, we made this decision just to take the high road of our own.

At least going forward, We request that ATTRAKT does not defame the FIFTY FIFTY members anymore at least going forward.

The four members just want to go back to the fans who support us as soon as possible. Even after this, we promise that we will become more independent and diligent artists.

Thank you.”

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I would just take the buyout offer and make a new group. Fifty Fifty probably won't make him any money at this point. I'm also not a business person though so idk.

Quote from AyanEva

I would just take the buyout offer and make a new group. Fifty Fifty probably won't make him any money at this point. I'm also not a business person though so idk.

The issue is, that the buyout off wasn't made to him. It was made to Siahn and he only discovered about it by talking to the Warner Director.

So he may well not have even been party to the buy out contract.

Quote from Fluffers

I don't think there's any hot group that'd sell for that little.

Yeah, no way.

16 million USD is way too little for a top GG like say LSRFM. They will probably sell 2-4 million albums per year for the next 3 years at least. Say 1.5M per comeback x 6 comebacks over 3 years which equals 9 million albums. Multiplied by 12 bucks per album equals 108 million in gross revenue.

Even if the label only gets 40 percent of that, that's already 44 million USD on just album sales alone in three years. Then you add in digitals, CFs, concerts, merch, appearances, etc. Then if the group ends up with a hugely loyal fanbase like Onces, the group will just continue to bank massive sales and concert revenue into years 5, 6, 7 and beyond.

As for 5050, 16 million USD is a gamble for sure. Digitals by themselves offer very little return. They would need to get a real fanbase willing to buy at least 400k albums per comeback reliably, plus they would need to be able to secure mid tier level concert tix, CFs, etc. to make it worthwhile for a label.

Quote from Fluffers

The issue is, that the buyout off wasn't made to him. It was made to Siahn and he only discovered about it by talking to the Warner Director.

So he may well not have even been party to the buy out contract.

Ooohhhh I missed that small detail. Yikes!

MESS! Too bad, the girls were caught in the middle of this and they are not established yet!

Quote from AyanEva

Ooohhhh I missed that small detail. Yikes!

Now to be fair

This audio could be fake

And it could be revealed that Siahn/The Givers legally have the ability to do that off of contract terms.

But as it currently stands, there's no real proof of that, and those kinda contract terms would be wild

I'm glad someone pointed out that making an offer is not illegally poaching.

Just to provide a ballpark sense of what a top group can make, the money is all mainly in concert tickets and merchandising sales. For BP in roughly one year -

7 Highest Grossing K-Pop Concert Tours So Far In 2023: Blackpink Reigns Supreme

Blackpink topped the list of the highest-grossing K-Pop concert tours this year. Fourth-generation groups also joined the list.

www.ibtimes.com

"In just 40 out of 60 shows, the group has already gathered a revenue of $163,832,685. The group's sold-out world tour started in October 2022 and will continue to Q3 2023, with a total of 60 shows."

and this is just for tickets. Merchandise sold is about the same as ticket sales.

This is why Kakao is willing to buy 40% of SM for Aespa and NCT for $1 billion US.

Would Fifty Fifty likely do such big numbers. No, but if successful they would be very profitable, because in the west celebs can do really well with licensed products, and they can sing, so it means they could perform till 35-40+ years old each.

Quote from K-PL

"In just 40 out of 60 shows, the group has already gathered a revenue of $163,832,685. The group's sold-out world tour started in October 2022 and will continue to Q3 2023, with a total of 60 shows."

and this is just for tickets. Merchandise sold is about the same as ticket sales.

I've seen this claim stated quite often in this forum, but we should be doubtful until we have some actual numbers.

interesting

I'm not impressed with $15mil. This group can do better. The issue is leaking this out. Looks bad for Attrakt.

Quote from zylan

I'm not impressed with $15mil. This group can do better. The issue is leaking this out. Looks bad for Attrakt.

?? It looked good for attrakt cause that means the ceo was right that theres a buyout happening without his consent.

Quote from wsoet

I've seen this claim stated quite often in this forum, but we should be doubtful until we have some actual numbers.

Back in SNSD concert days, there were receipts, so its basically accepted.

Quote from Elvis12

?? It looked good for attrakt cause that means the ceo was right that theres a buyout happening without his consent.

it’s mixed, being a CEO and communicating how little company control you have to the public isn’t a good look, even if he does turn out to be a victim entirely

Quote from KpopJop

it’s mixed, being a CEO and communicating how little company control you have to the public isn’t a good look, even if he does turn out to be a victim entirely

Well with the way the case is going i think he doesnt give a care anymore what other people will think

Quote from icyruios

I'm feeling lonely

And I wish that all this people will not sue me

Now I'm crying in my room

So skeptical

I don't want it no more more more

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no not icy!!!

someone please save icy and offer them at least 20billion won!!!

Quote from Elvis12

Well with the way the case is going i think he doesnt give a care anymore what other people will think

dicey move for a man in the Korean entertainment business

Quote from nana18

Omg this is not looking good for the girls, knetz will eat them alive

They will never operate in Korea again so they can care less

Quote from beatrixavier

MESS! Too bad, the girls were caught in the middle of this and they are not established yet!

Established in the world, just not in korea where they were never that relevant anyways.

The real opinion of the girls and Siahn would be 'whatever Koreans say".