Previous Columns

Kakao's $1 billion SM acquisition and HYBE's IP litigation against Min Hee-jin are the same transaction: buying legal control of who a trainee becomes.

South Korea's military deferral statute and Saudi Arabia's venue infrastructure push are two sovereign bets on the same globally touring pop act.

South Korea's military deferral legislation and Saudi PIF's venue infrastructure plays are the same structural bet made by different sovereigns: own the layer that talent cannot route around.

HYBE's simultaneous copyright lawsuit and label restructuring, alongside Jennie's $16M solo operation, reveal that the K-pop conglomerate IP model generates more defection risk than it was designed to hold.