2021–present: Restructuring and stock acquisition
On March 16, 2021, Dear U announced that they have raised the annual salary of all its employees by 15 million won.[8] The company raised its annual salary to secure high-quality manpower to develop Bubble and Lysn applications.[9] Lee Hak-hee, the chief operating officer of the company stated that Dear U is "paying attention" in "securing competitiveness" through "excellent" human resources.[10] Through a public announcement on April 5, SM Entertainment established a wholly owned subsidiary to promote the restructuring of group affiliates and to improve business structure.[11] It was reported that SM would invest in SM Studios as it established a new corporation with all shares of SM Culture & Contents, KeyEast, SM Life Design Group, Dear U, and Mystic Story, on which it seeks to streamline group management through a responsible management system as it plans to focus more on the music business.[12][13]
On June 4, 2021, SM reported that JYP Entertainment had acquired a 23.3% stake in Dear U as it began to expand its influence in the platform business.[14][15] JYP announced the acquisition of an additional 14.1% of the old common stock of the company owned by SM Studios.[16] Previously, on May 26, JYP had an acquisition of 1,682,000 shares of the company's old common stock.[17] It had a stake of 9.1%, at about 8.4 billion won, and the final number of shares acquired was 4,285,192 shares with a 23.3% stake, and the investment amount was about 21.4 billion won.[18][19] Its goal is to grow Dear U Bubble into a competitive mobile platform in the global market, noting the "synergy" between the two companies with global networks.[20]
Previously, the entertainment industry and investment banking industry reported that Dear U is currently undergoing due diligence to apply for a preliminary examination for listing on the Korea Exchange.[21] On June 11, 2021, the company submitted a preliminary review request for KOSDAQ listing to the Korea Exchange and started the initial public offering (IPO) process.[22] It aims to be listed in the second half of this year in order to establish itself as a leading company in the global market, and the listing organizer is Korea Investment & Securities.[23] Through the IPO, the company is planning to increase its "corporate awareness" and invest in developing a global message platform that will provide various services such as entering overseas markets and expanding platforms such as metaverse.[24] It listed about 16,812,769 shares, of which near 20% will be put up for public offering.[25]
