Music mogul Scooter Braun has sealed a deal to sell his media company Ithaca Holdings to HYBE, a South Korean entertainment company that’s home to the mega-popular boy band BTS. 

• HYBE will buy 100% of Braun’s Ithaca Holdings through its wholly-owned subsidiary HYBE America. With its purchase, it’ll take over Ithaca’s two main businesses which are SB Projects, a music management and marketing firm whose clients include Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande; and record label Big Machine Records.

• Braun pulled together a deal to buy Big Machine Records for $300 million in 2019. His company Ithaca Holdings financed the purchase with an investment from private equity firm Carlyle Group, which’s now exiting all of its stake in the company to HYBE.

• Braun’s deal to buy Big Machine Records famously saw him spar with pop star Taylor Swift who launched her storied career at the record label. Swift complained of Ithaca buying Big Machine Records which included the masters of her first six albums and then moving to sell the masters to another firm, Shamrock Holdings, without her knowledge.

• A stock exchange filing from HYBE revealed a price tag of roughly $1 billion for its Ithaca purchase. Under the purchase terms, HYBE is issuing new shares worth 182 billion South Korean won ($161M) to be allocated to a group of Ithaca shareholders including Braun and his artists Grande, Bieber and others.

• The $1 billion price tag also includes cash payments to existing shareholders and creditors of Ithaca Holdings. The acquisition, expected to close soon, further strengthens Braun’s prowess as a dealmaker in the entertainment industry.

• Braun will join HYBE’s board following the completion of its acquisition, and Big Machine’s CEO Scott Borchetta will remain in his position.

Photo credit: Ashley Graham, licensed under CC BY 3.0

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