Scooter Braun stepped down as CEO of HYBE America in July 2025, but his connection to the company is once again under scrutiny. Recent reports have questioned the large sum HYBE, founded by Bang Si-hyuk,
paid to acquire Braun’s former company, Ithaca Holdings, in 2021. Initially reported to be around 1 trillion won, official records reveal that HYBE’s total expenditure exceeded the purchase price.
The company also cleared Ithaca’s debt, which was approximately 120 billion Won (around $83 Million). This debt included loans connected to Braun’s earlier business work. The deal is getting attention again because many believe the money used for this takeover came from BTS’s success. During the time, BTS was HYBE’s biggest source of income, and many say the group’s earnings played a major role in funding and settling the company’s debts.
HYBE’s US Acquisition Under Spotlight
As per the data acquired by NewTamsa, the merger deal is worth about $927 Million, which is close to 1.049 trillion won. The company was taken over with a valuation of around $118 million or 127.2 billion Won. Money used to repay loans comes to nearly $1.045 billion, which is around 1.1762 trillion won. The total amount paid by the company covers all these costs.
Reports say this debt came from money borrowed by Scooter Braun when he bought the rights to Taylor Swift’s albums. In 2019, Braun took a loan of $300 Million to buy Big Machine Label Group, the company that owned the rights to Swift’s music. This deal became controversial because Swift had a poor relationship with Braun. Later, the pop star used a clause in her contract that allowed her to record her songs again after a fixed time.
She released new versions of her albums, which reduced the value of the original music rights owned by Braun. Reports claim that Braun took a large share of profit from selling the music rights and then passed the remaining debt to Bang Si-hyuk without clearing it himself.
HYBE used a large part of its own money to buy Ithaca Holdings and clear their debt. Most of the cash the company had at that time was spent on this deal, and it also took big loans to cover the remaining amount. During that period, BTS earned a large amount of money for Bang Si-hyuk’s company and this money was used for the US deal.
