'Plagiarism Controversy' Yoo Hee-yeol, return visualization... Securing management rights with 3.2 billion won

Composer and producer Yoo Hee-yeol (53) bought a 21.37% stake in Antenna and became the second largest shareholder. The reason for this is strengthening management rights. Yoo Hee-yeol, who refrained from activities due to the 'plagiarism controversy'. As much as he returned to the management of the company, attention is focused on other activities.

According to the Electronic Disclosure System of the Financial Supervisory Service on the 10th, Antenna CEO Yoo Hee-yeol spent about 3.2 billion won on the 2nd to buy 2786 shares, or 21.37%, of Antenna.

Kakao Entertainment, which had a 100% stake in Antenna, decreased to 57.93% (7553 shares). Yoo Hee-yeol (21.37%) became the second largest shareholder of Antenna after Kakao Enter. The remaining 20.7% is held by a third party.

In May 2021, Kakao Entertainment bought a 19% stake in Yoo Hee-yeol and bought a 100% stake in Antenna for 10 billion won. Yoo Hee-yeol, who has risen to the second largest shareholder, is expected to focus on antenna management in the future.

The reason why Kakao Entertainment became interested in antenna earlier was because of the recruitment of broadcaster Yoo Jae-seok.

Kakao continued aggressive investments in the entertainment industry after the official launch of Kakao Entertainment through the merger of Kakao Page and Kakao M in 2021. At this time, Antenna embraced Yoo Jae-seok, the first broadcaster to be recruited. This was the reason why Kakao spent about 10 billion won to secure the right to manage the antenna.

The antenna, which seemed to only walk on a flowery path, shook. It is because of the 'plagiarism controversy' of Yoo Hee-yeol, the representative of the agency. Last year, claims were raised that Yoo Hee-yeol's song 'A Very Private Night' copied Sakamoto Ryuichi's 'Aqua'.

Yoo Hee-yeol issued an apology to Ryuichi and it was the elders of the music industry who rekindled this incident that seemed to be settled. The board was laid by public broadcaster MBC. Pop culture critic Lim Jin-mo and resurrection leader Kim Tae-won appeared on MBC's '100 Minute Debate' on the 5th.

He shared his thoughts, "Since long ago, stories about the songs have gone up and down. If this is an illness, I think it's because I didn't watch it before it was cured." Im Jin-mo's evaluation was cool. He strongly criticized it, saying, "It's embarrassing to say that it's an objective conscience or intention. I don't understand. I don't know if this expression is correct, but I think it's a moral hazard." According to the industry, there was a message that the criticism of Yoo Hee-yeol by seniors and juniors in the music industry broke Yoo Hee-yeol's will to pursue entertainment activities.

In fact, Yoo Hee-yeol announced his departure from KBS' long-running program 'Yoo Hee-yeol's Sketchbook', which he had been running for decades. After that, they could only be seen at company-level events such as concerts by affiliated artists.

However, the acquisition of shares in the antenna reset the governance structure within the company. Naturally, the possibility of Yoo Hee-yeol's return to broadcasting also emerged. Yoo Hee-yeol is also a person who has been active in numerous broadcasts with the title of antenna representative. As management rights were strengthened, obstacles to future official activities disappeared. Although he did not show any will to return to broadcasting activities, the possibility is high.

Reporter Yoon Jun-ho, Ten Asia delo410@tenasia.co.kr