Who seems to be a greater businessperson in KPop? Min Heejin, or Lee Jieun?

It seems Hybe has some dirt on Min Heejin, which it will reveal as this mess progresses on.

I am not really interested on the drama, but businesswise it would have been much better for M HJ to stick it out, wait till she could part with Hybe in good terms, and start her project with no strings, instead of going thru this mess.

All these stock options, buybacks, so forth are just talk. Hybe's lawyers will fight tooth and nail against MHJ's lawyers to pay her as little as possible.

I am not going to talk about the consequences of the lawsuit - the point of this post would be to compare who is a better businessperson.

Both Min Heejin and Lee Jieun started with nothing.

Min Heejin started Ador with zero money of her own. It is said that she borrowed the 2 billion won, or about $1.46 mil in today's money, from Bang Sihyuk to get her 18% share of Ador.

Lee Jieun founded Edam Entertainment with no money of her own either. Edam entertainment has an initial capital of 50 million won, or about $34,000, of which Kakao put in 40%. about $13,700, and both Lee Jieun and her manager put in around $10,000.

Ador's quarterly sales was $81 mil, and profit was $19.5 mil for 1Q 2024, and that is after everyone was paid.

It is harder to calculate how much Lee Jieun earned in 2023 since she has reduced her shares of Edam Entertainment. It is not known how much she sold her 3% of Edam Entertainment back in 2023 but when she sold 7.5% of Edam Entertainment in 2022 she was paid 7.8 million won, or about $5.8 mil, so her remaining share of Edam Entertainment, 19.5%, would be worth about $15 million.

That is after Edam Entertainment has paid most of its income to IU, its sole notable singer (it had Woodz but he did not release any hits and is now in the military) .

Ador's sales are more impressive, but both Ador and Edam are essentially dependent upon one act; Ador has New Jeans, and Edam has IU only.

Both Min Heejin and Lee Jieun got into media trouble, but Min Heejin's current trouble is a business one, while Lee JIeun's media troubles tend to come from her own personal behavior, and not from her business practices.

Unlike Min Heejin, who only owned a small portion of her company, Lee Jieun did own 60% of the company she has founced, although she cashed some of her shares to make Kakao the majority owner again. Why Lee Jieun did that is something only known to herself, since being an outright owner is a privilege few people get to enjoy in this industry.

Min Heejin was put in charge of Ador when she was 41, after years in SM.

Lee Jieun became the owner of Edam Entertainment when she was 27.

Internationally speaking Min Heejin's acts became more popular, but her tenure with New Jeans is probably going to end before NJ reaches its full potential.

Lee Jieun had failed to make IU more internationally popular but IU is now doing a world tour, although probably much smaller than what New Jeans would have done in this year if MHJ did not decided to focus at elsewhere.

Min Heejin burnt a lot of bridges with the recent interview. She might get future investments from elsewhere but there will be lots and lots of strings attached.

Lee Jieun is too tied to Kakao, but since her singer IU has done commercials for Woori Bank for so often, it is said that Lee Jieun's assets are managed by an exec of that bank, which is fairly large in Korea, and she has made quite a few alliances in the industry, if she decides to strike out she will have less trouble finding investors.

in my opinion Lee Jieun is a better businessperson than Min Heejin. MHJ could have handled this more professionally with better planning but did not. If NJ had conquered the world MHJ would have completely overshadowed Lee Jieun as a businessperson, but it seems Lee Jieun, who had been ranked along with SM's Lee Sooman, JYPE's JYP and Hybe's Bang Sihyuk before

BTS Is Top Voted as ‘Power People’ in The South Korean Entertainment Industry 2020

South Korean Entertainment held a survey followed by 50 agencies. BTS is top voted as "People Power." Find out other most influential in South Korea.

www.kpoppost.com

Power people of KPop 2020

BTS

Lee Sooman, owner of SM

Bang Sihyuk, owner of Big Hit

JYP, owner of JYPE

Lee Jieun, owner of Edam Entertainment (at that time people did not know she owned Edam Entertainment outright)

has reached a greater height than MHJ.

But Min Heejin can create a new idol group with a greater ease than Lee JIeun, who has not found the next IU after all these years. So while MHJ's story won't end with New Jeans, Lee Jieun's story might end if IU's singing career declines irreversibly.

If MHJ can somehow turn this around and cash out a huge chunk of money, more than Lee Jieun or her singer IU had made in their lvfetimes, MHJ will overshadow Lee Jieun, but until that Lee Jieun seems to hold the upper hand.

Quote from pchromo4

IU likely had a similar arrangement as MHJ where at the time of EDAM's founding, Kakao placed a put option on part of her EDAM shares so they were always going to buy back a portion by a certain date as a bonus payment to IU.

I'm hoping that she was smart enough to negotiate her IP during that time since ownership of songs/the IU brand is much more important than just being a company shareholder.

What probably happened is IU traded her Edam stock with Kakao Entertainment since it was rumored for a long time that KE would go public and the stock prices would be higher. It is not known who owns the rights of songs/brand, but if Kakao's people have any brains they would not give that up.

Quote from selfmate

LSM since I orchestrated all of this

LSM did see the nature of MHJ and did not give her more rights than what he deemed safe.