Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

Chapter 185 The Tyrant is also quite gentle

When Lin Yuan stepped into the gate of SM company, he saw Lee Soo Man and Kangta already waiting at the door.

Behind the two of them, there were SM company staff members surrounding them. They also looked at Lin Yuan excitedly, but did not dare to come forward.

"Welcome Mr. Lin to our company. It's a great honor for you." Lee Soo Man smiled and took a few steps forward and shook hands with Lin Yuan.

Although Lee Soo-man tried his best to smile and show more kindness, he still gave people a sinister feeling.

He is now a company boss. Before becoming a company boss, he was a singer, and even earlier, he was a programmer!
Lee Soo-man studied in the United States in the early 80s and was an early IT talent who obtained a master's degree in computer engineering from California State University, Northridge.

If he hadn't been in the entertainment industry and had instead been pursuing his professional career, perhaps he would have become the godfather of the Korean Internet?
I can only say that the opportunities in life are really magical. Different paths will lead to different scenery.

"Nice to meet you, President Li. Sorry to bother you." Lin Yuan also smiled and shook hands in return.

"No, no, you are a distinguished guest that we cannot even invite. Mr. Lin, please come this way." Lee Soo-man smiled and led Lin Yuan to the meeting room.

Within SM Entertainment and even in the Korean music industry, Lee Soo-man's nickname is "Tyrant".

There are only wrong names, not wrong nicknames.

There are countless similar rumors circulating in the fan circle, such as that Lee Soo-man beat his singers until their faces were covered in blood, and then they could only perform on stage wearing masks.

But this "tyrant" seemed particularly gentle in front of Lin Yuan today.

After Lin Yuan and Lee Soo Man entered the meeting room, Kangta, who had been following behind them, did not come in. Instead, he carefully closed the door and stood guard outside.

"Thank you for coming here today, Mr. Lin. Is there anything you can teach me?"

What Lee Soo-man said was actually quite fake. Lin Yuan had already stated his intentions at the press conference, but he was pretending not to know here.

Lin Yuan made it clear that he wanted to invest in a Korean entertainment company.

So, is SM Entertainment short of money? Does it need investment?

The answer is: Very much in need! Of course we need it!
Currently, there are three idol groups under SM Entertainment:
The two boy groups are: HOT and Shinhwa.

One girl group is: SES.

Originally there were three gold mines that could be mined continuously, but now there are problems.

HOT disbanded last year, and SES has basically confirmed that there is no hope of contract renewal and will disband before the end of the year.

The last group, Shinhwa, doesn't make as much money as the other two and has also shown strong instability. It is estimated that they will disband after their contract expires next year.

This way, all the company’s income was cut off, and the new group had not yet debuted.

Even if you debut, can you be guaranteed to make money?

Therefore, SM company is now in a state of great instability and urgently needs external investment to help stabilize the situation.

Regarding Lin Yuan's arrival today, Li Xiuman is actually very conflicted:
On the one hand, he really hoped that Lin Yuan could invest in his company and inject a large sum of life-saving money.

On the other hand, he knew that his company's valuation was too low, and once he accepted the investment, he would most likely lose control of the company.

These two considerations made him very conflicted.

In response to Lee Soo Man's hypocritical answer, Lin Yuan responded directly and sincerely:
"I'm very optimistic about the future of K-pop, so I'd like to invest in a Korean entertainment company, and SM Entertainment is my first choice. What do you think, President Lee?"

"Then I would like to ask, how much is Mr. Lin going to invest? How much shares of SM company do you plan to take?" Lee Soo Man asked.

His psychological bottom line is 60 billion won (3000 million RMB), which is to sell 20% of the company's equity.

He was actually unsure about the offer. After all, SM Entertainment's current revenue couldn't support a 300 billion won valuation. While SM Entertainment's artists might seem incredibly popular, the Korean entertainment industry is incredibly small. K-pop hasn't yet gone global, and relying solely on domestic revenue wouldn't be enough.

Although the company's artists nominally have income from commercial endorsements, concerts, etc., most of that will have to wait until the future.

It is now 2002, and the commercial value of K-pop idols has not yet been fully discovered.

At this time, SM's main income still came from selling albums.

Take HOT as an example. Its best-selling album only sold about 100 million copies.

Based on the price of an album in South Korea, which is about 70 yuan, the total sales volume is about 7000 million yuan, and the distribution channel will take about 50% of the revenue.

SM takes this 50% of the revenue, and still has to cover the album production costs, factory production costs, artist share, various company expenses, taxes...

It is no wonder that Kangta has only earned a few million RMB in total even though he has been in the most popular Korean boy group for several years.

Although this amount of money is already a lot compared to the income of ordinary people, it is still far less than that of European and American artists, not to mention that of artists in China at that time where the income of artists had not yet inflated.

Lee Soo-man's psychological expectation was 3000 million RMB in exchange for 20% equity, but he didn't say it.

He wanted to wait for Lin Yuan to make an offer first, and then he could bargain, so that he would have more initiative.

Lin Yuan saw through Lee Soo Man's little thoughts at a glance, which was very consistent with his character.

But what Lee Soo Man didn't know was that Lin Yuan had already seen through his cards.

After all, SM Entertainment has been short of money for a long time. Before Lin Yuan, Lee Soo Man had also contacted many local Korean investors.

The offer he made is no longer a secret in the Korean investment circle.

Lee Boo-jin put a little thought into it and collected the information in this regard and passed it on to Lin Yuan.

Therefore, Lin Yuan had already gained a huge advantage in information.

At this time, Lin Yuan had two choices:

The first is to exert extreme pressure, which may even break Lee Soo-man's bottom line, such as paying 2000 million for a 17% stake.

But Lin Yuan would not do that, as that would be too short-sighted.

Anyone who has worked in procurement knows this: the contract you sign on paper is only meaningful if your partners gain reasonable and sufficient benefits.

As the more powerful Party A, of course, they can use various unreasonable prices to lower the price when signing the contract.

But most of the time, no matter how unreasonable the price is, Party B will still bite the bullet and sign the contract.

But do you think Party A wins in this way?
Not at all!

If you don't give them enough profit, they will use various invisible tricks such as cutting corners, embezzling public resources for personal gain, etc. to get the benefits back.

The same applies to Lin Yuan’s acquisition today.

The extreme pressure tactic is too low-end, and Lin Yuan needs Lee Soo-man's active cooperation. After all, he can't spend too much energy to supervise the company's management.

The best option is to use a greater future benefit as a rein to put around Lee Soo Man's mouth and drive him to run hard.

So Lin Yuan came up with his own plan.

(End of this chapter)