<It's >

friendly economic time for anchors. Today (16th) we will be with reporter Kwon Ae-ri. I started hearing about this a while ago, but it changed so often that it was not easy to keep up. Talk about the SM Entertainment takeover battle, please recap a little bit today.

<Reporter>

Yes, even if you write a corporate drama like this, I think you're going to hear that it's not plausible that you're trying to write it too dramatically.

Dramatically, SM Enter's management dispute is unfolding.

The first round is two weeks ago.

SM Enter's management officially announces that it will open the third phase of SM without founder Lee Su-man.

He said, "After 28 years of existence, the founder will remain only a shareholder."

The movement to question the position of founder Lee Su-man actually started to stand out last year.

A fledgling activist private equity fund, Align Partners, acquired a 1% stake in SM and audited SM for one person last year.

And it actually has a big impact on SM terminating its contract with Lee Suman's founder's private company, Like Planning.

Until last year, Like Planning was deeply involved in the overall production of SM idols, collecting 6% of SM's music-related sales as royalties.

Align raised the issue of "this is too much, it doesn't help SM".

Eventually, a significant number of SM's executives agreed with the half-time milestone, and SM's current management announced the third phase of SM, SM 3.0.

<Anchor
>
But now Kakao Enter has appeared here, right?

<Reporter>

yes, it's Round 2 from here. Kakao's announcement comes four days after the announcement that founder Lee Suman will be excluded from SM management.

It will acquire a 9% stake in SM and become the second largest shareholder after the founder.

Ultimately, it was revealed that SM's current management and activist fund Align, which began to participate in SM management, had joined hands with Kakao.

Founder Lee Suman is still the largest shareholder, but his share in equity is starting to shrink.

Kakao had previously expressed interest in SM management.

This time was seen as an opportunity to strengthen the influence of Kakao Enter, which already has webtoons and content areas, as a platform.

Therefore, the founder of Lee Suman, who was overseas at the time of the announcement of SM 3.0, returns home and begins to return with urgency.

In anticipation of legal action, news of a big big bang broke three days after Kakao's announcement.

BTS and New Jins' agency Hive, Lee's junior and SM's strongest rival, quickly became SM's largest shareholder when they acquired Lee's stake in SM.

Bang Si-hyuk, chairman of Hive, who has been keeping Kakao Enter's expansion in check, decided to reach out and aim for synergy with SM.

Lee Su-man simply joined hands with his strongest junior and rival, Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, and said he would not let the Ban Yi Su-man camp become the winner.

So Kakao, Align, and the current management of SM, and vice versa, the founders of Hive and Lee Suman, planned to buy 25% of SM's shares in a tender offer, or market, to become the clear winner of this dispute.

<Anchor>

yes. I wondered what was going to end like that. But then things got weirdly complicated again.

<Reporter>

Yes, it's round three. It's a more complicated third round.

When Hive tried to secure more SM shares in the market to ensure the acquisition of SM, Hive thought the amount was 120,000 won per SM share.

However, as the dispute over SM management rights heats up, SM stock also continued to rise, and finally the market began to circulate to the point that CJ would join the half-dozen camps, and SM stock price exceeded 120,000 won in one day.

Speaking of minority shareholders, they would think that it would be profitable to simply dispose of SM in the market when the SM stock price is so high, rather than selling it for a set 120,000 won to Hive.

Hive needs more money to buy, and it's a reminder that the half-dozen factions are still looking for multiple cards.

It's a dispute that has already been plunged into by big players across Enter and IT, but with the possibility that other large companies could be involved, the eventual winner of this takeover battle is yet to be clearly identified.

The problem is SM's stock price, which is getting even more heated amid an overheated management dispute.

As the situation continues to turn around in a single day, and as rumors continue to be denied by the parties, retail investors need to be cautious about unconfirmed rumors and overly volatile stock prices.