On the morning of April 24, in front of the HYBE group headquarters building, a truck appeared sent by fans, with content protesting against CEO Min Hee Jin of ADOR company such as: “Bunnies (NewJeans fan community) supports NewJeans is under HYBE!”, “Min Hee Jin stop taking advantage of NewJeans and their families!”, “Min Hee Jin stop slandering other artists!”.
This action by fans stems from the recent conflict between CEO Min Hee Jin – “mother of NewJeans” – with HYBE Group and HYBE President Bang Si Hyuk.
On April 22, entertainment group HYBE suddenly conducted an audit of its subsidiary ADOR, suspecting that CEO Min Hee Jin and a close associate in the group were planning to take control of ADOR and separate from HYBE.
NewJeans was also dragged into controversy, after CEO Min Hee Jin announced that BELIFT LAB’s rookie girl group ILLIT – one of HYBE’s subsidiaries – was “copying NewJeans”. Min Hee Jin said that it was discussed with NewJeans members to make this announcement.
According to Korean media, in documents collected by HYBE from ADOR company computers, there are recorded some statements of CEO Min Hee Jin such as: “ILLIT, TWS, RIIZE all copied NewJeans” or “Chairman Bang Si Hyuk copied me and created BTS.”
HYBE plans to take legal action if necessary, to convene a shareholder meeting for ADOR, to replace ADOR’s current executive leadership, including personnel from Min Hee Jin’s side.
This information continues to have a negative impact on NewJeans. Especially in the context that the group is preparing to return with a new album in May and June. This makes many fans worry that NewJeans’ musical activities may be “frozen” due to an internal incident of the group. company.
As expected, NewJeans’ MV “Bubble Gum” will be released in advance on April 26. However, up to now, ADOR has not had any direct promotional activities for this MV such as releasing introductory videos and images.
Ahn Do Young – researcher at Korea Investment & Securities – commented: “NewJeans has an exclusive contract with ADOR, but HYBE owns 80% of the shares in ADOR, so NewJeans is still an intellectual property (IP) of HYBE .
Because of this, both parties are expected to protect NewJeans’ IP, making it likely that the group’s upcoming music releases in May and June will take place as planned without interruption. ”.
In a latest statement, HYBE CEO Park Ji Won also encouraged ADOR employees to continue working “for the return and development of NewJeans”.
Analysts say that, even in a worst-case scenario where NewJeans leaves HYBE, the negative impact on HYBE’s overall performance will be negligible.
Therefore, fans are waiting to see how the conflict between CEO Min Hee Jin and HYBE will be resolved, and whether NewJeans can continue to operate?
