Profile Behind A2O Light's No. 1 on Melon: The 74-Year-Old Lee Soo-man—How Did He Spend Those Three Bound Years?

The debut song 'Neon' by girl group A2O Light, created by Lee Soo-man, remained at No. 1 on Melon's Top 100 on the morning of the 21st. The track first reached the top 29 hours after its release on the evening of the 13th and has held the No. 1 position consecutively since the 15th. On the 20th, it won its first No. 1 on music broadcast 'The Show.' The official YouTube music video has surpassed 19 million views. On stage stand nine teenagers averaging fifteen years old; behind the stage stands a seventy-four-year-old.

This article is about the person behind the stage. The date Lee Soo-man returned after leaving SM Entertainment three years ago was set by a single line in a contract. What he held in his hands when returning was determined by how he spent those three years.

Before Departure: Up to 6% of Revenue

Lee Soo-man stepped down as an executive director at SM in 2010. Afterwards, he continued to receive production compensation through his private company Like Planning. According to the contract, he received up to 6% of revenue, and 24 billion won was paid in 2021 alone. While outside the company, he was positioned at the center of the company's cash flow.

In 2022, activist fund Align Partners targeted this structure. The issue raised was whether it was appropriate to pay hundreds of billions of won annually to a personal company of the largest shareholder. An auditor recommended by Align was appointed at the shareholders' meeting, and by year-end the Like Planning production contract ended. On February 3, 2023, SM management announced SM 3.0, signaling the 'end of Lee Soo-man's one-man system,' and four days later decided to transfer new shares to Kakao. The founder was being pushed out of the company bearing his own name.

One Line in the Contract: Three Years, Domestic

Then Hive arrived. On February 9, 2023, Hive agreed to buy Lee Soo-man's 14.8% stake in SM at 120,000 won per share, totaling 422.8 billion won. This was 21.8% more expensive than the closing price the previous day. Three terms were listed in the disclosure. Share trading, a put option to repurchase the remaining 3.65% stake at the same price, and a promise to delegate voting rights at that year's shareholders' meeting to Hive. And there was one more clause that Hive announced in its statement but was not in the disclosure: 'Lee Soo-man can only engage in production work overseas, excluding South Korea, for the next three years.'

This is a non-compete clause. The same principle applies when transferring a neighborhood store. Commercial law prohibits the person who transferred a business from operating the same business in a certain region for 10 years even without a separate promise, or up to 20 years with a promise. This is because the buyer's payment includes not only the shop sign and fixtures but also the promise that 'the owner will not reopen next door.' In Lee Soo-man's case, since what was sold was shares rather than a business, this regulation does not automatically apply. So it was separately included in the contract. The term is three years; the scope is domestic.

For Hive, this one line reads in two ways. One is to draw a line against Lee Soo-man's potential return to SM in the market's view. The attack point of both Align and SM management was precisely Lee Soo-man. In a statement on February 16, Hive stipulated that 'the passage of three years does not mean a return to SM.' The other purpose was to protect the value of the purchased shares—a mechanism to reduce the risk of him leaving and immediately starting a competing company.

During the Three Years: Walking Out Through Three Doors

But that clause had loopholes. Overseas production not targeting South Korea as a major market was possible. According to reports at the time, he could stand as a planner domestically for one-off or international events. Albums made overseas could be brought into South Korea if he did not participate in distribution.

Lee Soo-man walked out through that door. In March 2023, he established the personal company Blooming Grace in Seoul. Entertainment was not listed in the registration purpose, and Lee Soo-man purchased a building in Apgujeong-dong for 15 billion won. In 2024, he established A2O Entertainment in Singapore and debuted the five-member girl group A2O May in December that year. He listed them on Chinese music charts and included them in US radio charts. In 2025, with a Korean subsidiary in Cheongdam-dong Seoul, starting in early March after the non-compete clause expired at the end of February, he held auditions every Sunday. On October 12, he simultaneously unveiled nine girl group members and fifteen boy group members at Kintex in Goyang.

It was not just eight months of preparation between the expiration of the non-compete clause and debut. He had spent three years preparing the next stage overseas.

Settlement: What Was Lost and What Was Gained

What Lee Soo-man lost was the company bearing his name and the contract for up to 6% of revenue. What he gained was cash and three years of preparing the next stage overseas.

First, the cash. Adding 422.8 billion won for the shares to 104.3 billion won from the put option on remaining shares at 120,000 won the following year totals 527.1 billion won. The SM closing price on February 28, 2024, when the additional acquisition disclosure was released, was 79,500 won per share. Hive had to buy at approximately 51% more than that market price, with the difference alone being 35.2 billion won. When Kakao made a public tender offer at 150,000 won per share, Lee Soo-man did not participate. The following year, he exercised the put option and transferred his remaining stake to Hive.

During the same three years, the other two spent it differently. Hive invested 555.1 billion won in SM shares and resold them for 560.5 billion won. The difference in share trading proceeds alone is 5.4 billion won. Kakao and Kakao Entertainment bought approximately 8.33 million shares through public tender offer for 1.25 trillion won. Calculating this volume at the 21st closing price of 85,900 won yields approximately 534.2 billion won lower than the purchase price. Kakao founder Kim Beom-soo was indicted for allegedly manipulating stock prices to obstruct Hive's public tender offer but was acquitted in the first trial in October last year. The appellate court decision is scheduled for November 20.

Hive's 5.4 billion won does not reflect net profit after accounting for dividends, taxes, transaction costs, and borrowing interest. Business collaborations such as SM artists' Weverse placement remain. However, from share trading alone, it did not generate significant gains, and the time it prevented Lee Soo-man from operating domestically was three years. Kakao obtained SM, but the 21st closing price fell short of both the 120,000 won Hive paid and the 150,000 won Kakao offered.

Remaining Questions

The Kintex debut show was his first return to a domestic official stage since his keynote address at the International Copyright Organization Congress in May 2024. One hit song does not guarantee the next will hit, and where A2O goes is determined not by contract but by the market.

But one thing is clear. A non-compete clause could bind a person's domestic activities for three years, but it could not restrict what that person prepared overseas. In the 'SM War' that Hive and Kakao fought, Lee Soo-man walked away with both cash and the next stage.