When you look up the definition of greedy in the dictionary, there's a picture of this man
Aaack! That's terrifying.
Okay, I've been meaning to write this post for eons but it seems especially important now given all the crap that's going down at HYBE. We need to talk about BSH and his obscene wealth.
This April, Forbes published the list of South Korea's 50 richest people. Coming in at number 17 was the hitman himself, Bang Si-Hyuk, estimated to be worth 2.1 BILLION US DOLLARS. I believe that figure has likely gone down a bit thanks to HYBE's falling stock price, but that's still an absolutely crazy number.
Although South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index was one of the worst performers in Asia last year, it rebounded in 2024 fueled by investor fren
Now let's talk about Scooter Braun. According to Wikipedia, he is estimated to be worth approximately $1 billion, however, most other outlets list him at being worth about $500 million. Either way, he's not buying generic cereal when he goes grocery shopping.
Bang PD paid approximately $1 billion dollars to Scooter when he acquired Ithaca Holdings in April, 2021. Scooter was given over $100 million in HYBE stock as well as an undisclosed cash payment.
Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande were each given $12 million worth of stock, while J Balvin received $4.8 million and Demi Lovato received $1.2 million. I would describe these "gifts" as glorified bribes to prevent each of them from bolting the minute the buyout was announced.
Grande and Bieber each will get about $12 million worth of stock in the South Korean music company.
Now compare that to what the members of BTS received. For all their blood, sweat, and tears, starvation diets, no time off, worked to exhaustion, they each received 68,385 shares prior to the IPO, which were initially valued at $8 million per person. It's important to note Bang Si-Hyuk maintained their voting rights and votes on their behalf. So, they have shares, but no voting rights, i.e. no say in the direction of the company at the board of directors level.
It's worth noting that JB, AG, JB, and DL did absolutely nothing to earn those shares. They contributed nothing to the success of Big Hit and the eventual creation of HYBE Corporation. It's also worth noting that all four of them are no longer Scooter's clients.
HYBE America was the worst performing subsidiary under HYBE Corp in 2023, posting a loss of about $100 million (I'll dig up the financials for a future post). I think we all know where that went, but we can talk about that later. However poorly SB's business line performed, he will still continue to make profits off of his legacy clients thanks to sunset clauses in their original contracts. You can read about that here:
Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun have four years left on their contract, making leaving hard to do.
Scooter Braun sits on HYBE's Board of Directors. He is also 5th largest shareholder, with 0.8698% ownership. The members of BTS each have 0.1642% ownership (assuming they haven't sold their initial shares). I believe they will receive more ownership and voting rights when their new contract goes into effect, though. Meanwhile...
Bang Si-Hyuk is the Chairman of HYBE Corporation and the majority shareholder, with 31.57% ownership. He owns the place. When you add up all seven members' shares together, they still own less than 2% of the total shares of the company.
So please, for the love of GOD, understand that the members of BTS are not in charge. They are just employees. And frankly, they aren't well compensated when you compare them to other artists in the industry. Most sources say the members are each worth somewhere between $25 million to $40 million. Let's go with the low end of $25 million since that's the number I see most often. If Bang PD is worth $2.1 billion, that means each member is worth less than 1.2% of what Bang is worth.
ONE POINT TWO PERCENT!!!!
And you think Min Hee Jin is greedy???
Okay, back to the boys. Let's take a look at Simon Cowell's net worth. You know that guy? The one who formed One Direction and is a music and TV producer and personality? Do you want to guess how much he's worth? Well, its' not $2.1 billion. He's estimated to be worth a measly $600 million. And what about the former One Direction members themselves? (FYI all of these are estimates based upon online media sources).
Harry Styles - $120 million
Zayn Malik - $75 million
Niall Horan - $70 million
Louis Tomlinson - $70 million
Liam Payne - $70 million.
So, let's just pretend they each have $70 million. That means each member of One Direction is worth just under 12% of what Simon Cowell is worth.
One last thing. This is Bang PD's house in Bel Air, California. He bought it from Trevor Noah for $26 million. Mind you, that's potentially more than what the members of BTS are each worth. Just for one house in a country the man doesn't even live in.
Trevor Noah, 38, paid $27.5 million for the estate back in December 2020
Benevolent father figure my ass. But BTS are shareowners!!
Disclaimer: these numbers are all estimated based upon information available on the world wide web.
P.S. the 2024 Q1 earnings call is in a few hours. Prepare yourself for the media play.
