[Exclusive] Is Adore Man in danger of being fired?...Zico's agency management also changed

According to an investigation by Maeil Business Newspaper's Star Today on the 23rd, some executives, including CEO A of HYBE's subsidiary KOZ Entertainment, left the company at the end of last year. One of them is known to have worked with Zico for over 10 years, raising curiosity about his sudden departure.

According to industry sources, the personnel changes within KOZ Entertainment are said to be due to poor performance. KOZ Entertainment recorded sales of 19.4 billion won last year, the lowest performance among all labels under HYBE.

Currently, KOZ Entertainment is home to Zico, the representative and main artist, and the group Boy Next Door. Boy Next Door, which debuted in May of last year, released their second mini-album "How?" on the 15th of last month and promoted it. As of the last day of promotions on the 11th, the album has sold 716,487 copies, showing growth, achieving a figure that is 1.5 times higher than the first month of sales of their first mini-album "Why" (477,787 copies). Some in the music industry are pointing out that the decision to replace KOZ Entertainment's management is somewhat hasty.

KOZ Entertainment is a management company founded by Zico in November 2018 and was acquired by HYBE in November 2020.

Hive, which operates a multi-label system, has been in conflict with CEO Min Hee-jin of Adore since raising suspicions of management rights seizure and starting an audit of them on the 22nd of last month. With Adore’s extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting scheduled for the 31st, they plan to dismiss CEO Min and appoint new management. CEO Min refuted, saying, “I raised the issue of the group (Illit’s) New Jeans copy, and now Hive is trying to dismiss me.”

Regarding the view that this has revealed the problems of the multi-label system, CEO Park Ji-won of Eve admitted in a performance announcement conference call early this month that “we have encountered difficulties while pioneering the path of multi-label,” and stated that “we will continue to think about what we need to supplement for advancement and make improvements.”

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