Big Hit, Naver and YG join forces in a big K-pop stock swap

KRX-listed Big Hit Entertainment is undertaking a stock swap with Naver that will leave the two companies as partners in a venture that will own and run Naver's V Live. In the transaction, Naver will transfer its V Live unit to ..

KRX-listed Big Hit Entertainment is undertaking a stock swap with Naver that will leave the two companies as partners in a venture that will own and run Naver’s V Live.

In the transaction, Naver will transfer its V Live unit to Big Hit Entertainment subsidiary beNX, leaving Big Hit with 51 percent of beNX and Naver with 49 percent.

In a related transaction, Big Hit Entertainment will invest 30 billion won ($27,139) into YG Plus, a YG Entertainment subsidiary, and beNX will invest 40 billion. That deal will leave Big Hit Entertainment with 7.68 percent of YG Plus and beNX with 10.24 percent.

According to Big Hit Entertainment, which is home to BTS, it has passed the two items approving the deals during its board meeting held on Wednesday.

YG Plus is an entertainment and lifestyle company that specializes in music distribution, K-pop merchandise production and event organization. It also manages fashion models and actors signed with YG Kplus. The investment marks the start of a collaboration between Big Hit, beNX and YG Plus, in which they cooperate on various businesses carried out by the respective companies, such as platform development, music distribution and content creation.

Artists managed by YG Plus will become available on Weverse, the fan community platform developed by beNX, while YG Plus will take charge of distributing and merchandising music made by Big Hit Entertainment's musicians.

After the Naver deal, beNX will change its name to Weverse Company and develop a new fan community platform using the best of V Live and Weverse.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]