• what is your body shape? which body type do you like best? please, comment.
🚨 THIS POST ISN'T FOR THE PURPOUSE OF RIDICULE. THE PURPOSE OF THIS POST IS TO INFORM AND SHOW THAT ALL TYPES/SHAPES OF BODIES ARE BEAUTIFUL, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S A HEALTHY BODY.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m no expert in business matters, let alone business matters in South Korea, and that this opinion comes from a longtime standing fan of WM Entertainment. Of course we’ll probably never actually know why this acquisition happened or why it came about but I just wanted to give my thoughts about the subject and give some overview. Also, I apologize if this sounds like a report at some points, I did look up some information to make sure that I understood the subject matter as well. This also isn’t trying to defend or look down upon the decision. I’m just using this as my outlet to express and attempt to gain an understanding of the situation.
Also if anyone has any thoughts or opinions they want to share, feel free to reach out through any of the platforms that I’m on!
Thanks! - Marisa
For those of you that may be unaware of the subject matter, it was released today that RBW had secured more than 70% of WM Entertainment’s stock and has thereby made WM Entertainment into a subsidiary of theirs. With the word subsidiary, the most common example that I’ve seen being thrown around is the agreement that happened with Woollim Entertainment and SM C&C. I think it’s important to note a couple of things with what happened there, though. Probably the most important would be that after signing the merger in 2013, it was actually undone and reversed in 2016 and Woollim went back to being its own independent company, kind of. So technically yes, they are a subsidy of SM C&C, I think, at this current moment but what happened in the beginning was a merger. Which brings me to my second point. It’s important to note that what happened between Woollim and SM C&C was actually a merger rather than an acquisition, which it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen, at this moment, between WM and RBW. Obviously things could change since they do apparently own more than 70% of WM’s stocks now so unless something is outlined in their contract regarding that type of thing, I guess I’d just say that anything could happen.
But anyway, let me give a brief rundown on what happened between Woollim and SM C&C in 2013. First, I think we should understand what SM C&C actually is. That company itself is actually a subsidy of SM Entertainment that was acquired by them in 2012. The company currently operates as a production company, theatrical production company, and travel company but of course has actors, actresses, and various entertainers, it seems like mostly MCs or people who frequently or only do variety, signed to them. Anyway, so what happened is that the two actually merged to create Woollim Label. The definition of merger includes when companies join together to create a new single identity. SM C&C still was a company by itself, though, but I think it was just that Woollim was merged with a division within the company of SM C&C. See, this is a bit complicated, haha. But the creation of Woollim Label shows that it was a merger. However, in 2016, it was announced that SM C&C would be establishing Woollim Entertainment to handle its music business while they kept some of the stock, but not enough for a majority. What that essentially meant is that Woollim went back to being its own entertainment company in a way. SM C&C still has stock, but they weren’t merged together anymore. Rather, I think, Woollim then became more of a subsidy of SM C&C if that makes sense.
Enough of that, though, let’s get back to the current issue at hand.
I find it very interesting that RBW got 70% of WM’s stock. Typically, if whoever is buying the stock wants to become a majority holder, then they just buy enough to make them the majority. Most of the times it’s numbers that are nowhere near 70%. But those companies could be publicly trading their stock and the way that they get the majority is through buying out other companies and company individuals rather than the general public that might have that stock. That’s what different about WM, they’re a private company. That is something that could potentially change, though. Essentially with that 70%, RBW has the say to do what they want with WM but I’ll get into that later. But I think it’s strange that the number 70 just came about from somewhere. I wonder how WM’s stock was previously divided before this and if it was somewhere in the agreement about how the stocks should be divided upon the acquisition, I’m pretty sure it probably was. We’ll probably never know those details, but I don’t know, 70% is strange to me and doesn’t make sense.
To put an example on how strange I find the number 70, let me set up an example situation. I’m not saying that this is actually what happened but just putting in into perspective why I find it so strange. So let’s say that WM’s stocks are divided amongst the people in the company and investors in a way that would make achieving 51% possible, or even 50.1%. Anything over 50.1% would technically give RBW the majority hold over WM. Therefore, in an administrative sense, the majority that they get at 51% would be the same control that they get at the 70%. Maybe RBW aimed for a higher percentage to ensure that they would actually have control and that they wouldn’t somehow get removed as technically “being in charge” or if they got more financial rewards on having 70% of the stock. I don’t know much about the exchanging of stocks, especially in private companies, but 70% seems like a lot even if they want to securely have the majority in the company. If they weren’t comfortable with sitting in the 50% range, they probably could’ve gone to 60% but even then that seems a little high when, in most public companies, the majority is seemingly secured at around 25% – 30%. Once again, though, we’re talking about a private company, two private companies really, so things are definitely different. Also, with private companies, they don’t have to release information about any of this because the general public isn’t involved in any of their business proceedings.
So I’m not sure if it’s the same in South Korea, but at least for the United States, the private company is the one that approves the buying of the shares because they aren’t available on any public platform. It seems that for the most part, the people who have stocks in private companies are either the employees themselves or investors unless the company goes and seeks out people to purchase it. I think the case between the two companies is a little different. I already mentioned that WM is a private company but RBW is, too. RBW was also created from a merger back in 2015 between WA Entertainment and Rainbow Bridge Agency. Therefore I can only assume that either both companies sought out each other or one company went to the other with a deal. Either way, because they’re both private companies, there was no way for RBW to do an underhand deal on WM because WM would have to approve the stocks purchase in the first place. I never suspected that they did, but I thought I’d add it just in case anyone might’ve thought about that happening in the future.
But then another question would be whether they plan to go public or not, as in make themselves a public company where the general public can buy stocks. If that’s the case, then is the 70% that RBW bought going to be available to the public? Then is RBW going to get whatever profits or stuff is associated with those bought stocks? Or maybe to put it in a different perspective, they’re saying the 70% because they already sold the 30% back to the company? If that makes any sense. I guess what I’m trying to say is that maybe another way that this all went down was that RBW actually bought 100% of WM but left the 30% of stock out of it so that, I’m going to assume Lee Wonmin has that 30%, he is technically in charge of the subsidiary? But thinking about that and majorities, that probably wouldn’t hold true because then, if they go public, anyone could get over 30% of that WM stock and then be in the majority over Lee Wonmin. I guess it all just depends on whether RBW has any intention to go public or to make WM a public subsidiary, too.
I know this is getting long but I’ll just end on my opinion about what’s going to happen in the future with this whole acquisition and subsidy stuff.
Like I’ve said before, the 70% definitely makes me nervous a little. I’ve stated my reasons for why RBW might’ve gone for over the majority but at the same time, it just kind of doesn’t make sense why they would want 70% unless to make sure they have complete control. At the same time, they have said that WM will still be able to keep their management in place therefore I’m wondering if maybe the 70% has more to do with the future rather than the present? Technically, since RBW owns the majority of WM, they could essentially tell them to do whatever they want and they could, technically, dissolve WM as a company. They have the majority vote so it wouldn’t be illegal for them to do so, unless there’s some sort of law or certain requirements that must be met that I’m unaware of. I want to believe that there is probably something within their contract about that, though, that wouldn’t let for such a thing to happen. Still, it’s strange and I honestly always think that I’ll see the 70% as a strange number, especially in regard to stocks and shares of a singular company.
I know that it’s been reported that WM’s management is supposed to stay the same but I hope it remains that way. I know that there are some things about them that people, me included, are unhappy with them about but they do treat their artists well and have created unique brands that fit their groups. I guess the only underlying worrying thing would be that 70%. But as long as this stays as an acquisition, and WM remains as a subsidy of RBW, then I don’t see any sort of issue, as long as WM remains in control of their own artists.
Maybe this acquisition is beneficial for both parties. Like I stated before, if there is a decision to go public, they could get more capital overall since stock tends to go up when one company acquires another. Additionally, they may have better, or more, resources to work with since they’re technically working together. Hopefully there are some sort of strengths that each company have that they can work together to create an overall better situation, but that’s all stuff for the administrative side. On the side of the artists, from what it seems right now, it doesn’t seem like much is changing. The companies aren’t merging into one so it doesn’t seem like the artists are technically becoming labelmates. Sure, they may work together in the future, it would be easier to do that with this, but I still think that they’ll identify themselves separately and as part of separate companies since WM Entertainment still technically exists.
The closest example that I can think of where subsidies are involved is when people think about the Disney company or even about Comcast. Sure, both of those companies are huge and it doesn’t really relate to RBW’s acquisition of WM, but it helps to think about how subsidies work in a way, or at least I think so. Both Disney and Comcast are large companies that hold multiple companies underneath of them as subsidies, some that people might not even realize are owned by them. Take Comcast as the first example, I’m pretty sure one of their subsidies is NBC, which they actually 100% acquired in 2013 after only having the majority. Still, Comcast is the parent company. Parent companies are companies that own enough stock in other companies to be considered the majority. The other companies that are under a parent company are considered to be subsidiaries of the parent company. On the other hand, for Disney, they’re considered a parent company to ABC and even Pixar is considered to be their subsidiary.
I guess what I’m trying to show is that sometimes companies are able to govern and manage themselves even if they become acquired by a different company. The definition of a subsidy is that they operate as a separate and distinct corporation and that their obligations are not usually a liability of the parent company.
But I apologize for this being so long and congrats if you made it this far and my thoughts made any sense to you. I wasn’t really trying to get anywhere with this, I was just mainly just using it as an outlet to express my understanding of the situation at hand and maybe try to clear up things that others might have questions about. I wasn’t trying to look down upon or defend the decision made, just trying to gain a better understanding.
If anyone does have any questions, if you want to say something that I might’ve missed, or if you have your own opinions on the subject matter, please feel free to reach out to me on any of the platforms that I’m on! I’m always looking to hearing what other people have to say about the subject. Or even if there’s something else you want to talk about, feel free to ask away!
