'Hive-Min Hee-jin incident' enters a lull... A 15-day battle that was like a movie

Rumors that Adore CEO Min Hee-jin would leave Hive circulated in the industry two weeks before the incident occurred. Contrary to the industry's view that it was "just a rumor without substance," the conflict between the two sides surfaced. The situation degenerated into a story that had nothing to do with the core issues, such as shamans, cults, and hoarding. The muddy fight that we had been concerned about continued. About 15 days have passed since the incident occurred. We have summarized the timeline of the Hive and Min Hee-jin incidents, which are currently in a lull.

◆ April 22nd

Hive - Min Hee-jin incident is on the surface

On the 22nd of last month, the Hive and Min Hee-jin incident emerged as a topic of public interest. On this day, Hive reported that it had captured the circumstances of CEO Min's 'hijacking of management rights.' Hive also demanded CEO Min's immediate resignation.

◆ April 23rd

Representative Min’s first rebuttal: “The cause is eyelets.”

On the 23rd, CEO Min raised the issue with Hive that his label Belif Lab's Eyelet copied New Genes, but claimed that a retaliatory audit was conducted.

◆ April 25th

Representative Min, unprecedented press conference → Public opinion reverses

Representative Min's claims fueled the situation, and Hive released a statement on the 25th, providing evidence of CEO Min's 'hijacking of management rights'.

According to the evidence provided by Hive, the conversation between CEO Min and Vice President A of Adore included "an instruction to prepare a way to pressure Hive to sell its shares of Adore." In addition, the transcript also contained action plans such as 'preparing for public opinion in May' and 'making Adore an empty shell and taking him out.'

Accordingly, on the same day, Hive filed a complaint against CEO Min and Vice President A on charges of breach of trust.

At 3 PM on this day, Representative Min held an emergency press conference as disagreement with Hive continued. CEO Min talked about ‘New Genes’ delayed debut’, ‘Other labels imitating New Genes’, ‘shaman management’, and ‘The suspicion of stealing management rights is a sad story with management’.

Representative Min’s press conference was literally a success. The press conference was refreshing to many people who watched the press conference, including the shabby clothes, the familiar face, the speech that seemed to represent office workers, saying he was "the salaried boss," the swear words, and the disgusting remarks directed at his boss. However, some experts agree that it is a kind of promotional strategy to mislead the public.

After Representative Min's press conference, public opinion began to lean toward Representative Min.

◆ April 26 - May 2

Hive pseudo-hoarding controversy… The unexpected timing of ‘snow snow snow’

Hive, sensing the seriousness of the situation, refuted Representative Min's claims by dividing them into 12 items. The first claim that 'Saddam took over management rights' was explained several times over a long period of time, and when a third party intervenes, it is no longer Saddam, but planning and execution.

Regarding the second claim that the financial compensation was small, "CEO Min said that his annual salary is 2 billion won. In particular, the incentive for performance in 2023 is 2 billion won, and the annual salary and long-term incentives are set separately. This is for Hive headquarters and Korean subsidiaries. He refuted, “It is overwhelmingly ranked first in annual salary among members.” In addition, Hive explained in the slave contract, "The value of the stock held by CEO Min is a large amount that is difficult for ordinary people to imagine."

Regarding the claim that they were negligent in promoting New Genes, they said, "Over the past year, 273 press releases were written and distributed by New Genes alone, and even compared to 659 press releases by Big Hit Music and 365 by Pledis Entertainment, it can never be seen as being negligent in promoting New Genes. “He said.

Regarding CEO Min's claim that "shamans = mere friends," he said, "External personnel who intervene in detail in overall management cannot be considered mere friends. The amount of stock options of executives that were not disclosed during the conversation, names of potential investors - shareholding ratio by investor, etc. “A variety of information was exchanged, and decisions on management issues were made based on the shaman’s suggestions,” he said.

Controversy gave rise to more controversy. This is because various suspicions surrounding Hive have been raised for several days. In addition to the Hive pseudo-theory, suspicions of music hoarding by BTS emerged.

However, there are some doubts about the background of this issue. Suspicions continued to arise after Hive announced the results of its interim audit of Adore and CEO Min held an emergency press conference.

It has been reported that Hive believes that a 'viral company' is behind these false allegations and is conducting a related investigation. A follow-up announcement on legal action along with an audit report was also announced in the near future. There is also an internal rumor that the document titled 'Hive's Sins' discovered by Hive during the Adore audit is related to the rumor of involvement in this pseudo-religion.

◆ May 3-7

A lull before the court battle... Adore's board meeting will be held on the 10th.

At 9 am on the 7th, a wreath of condolence sent by the BTS fandom ARMY was placed in front of Hive headquarters. Hive is also voicing his dissatisfaction with the various controversies surrounding BTS. Whatever CEO Min’s intentions, this is something to smile about. Representative Min is also waging public opinion through interviews with foreign media that targeted Hive.

“CEO Min Hee-jin’s anger captured the imagination of young Korean women who were fascinated by her criticism of their male bosses,” an interview with Golza said. ‘Takeover of management rights’ is the main topic of debate, but it appears to be degenerating into a fight between women and men, the working class and the bourgeoisie.

The Adore board meeting, which will be a watershed in this situation, will be held on the 10th. This schedule is about one to two weeks earlier than Hive's plan to pursue by applying to the court for permission to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, and the industry interpreted it as showing Min's determination not to lose the initiative. However, it is not known what agenda Adore will come up with. If the board of directors holds an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, the extraordinary general meeting is expected to be held on the 27th.

Reporter Junho Yoon, Ten Asia delo410@tenasia.co.kr