CJ Chairman Lee Jae-hyun's Hollywood Gamble... Acquires 'La La Land' Production Company for 920 Billion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] "We will invest more than 10 trillion won over the next three years, focusing on the four major growth engines: Culture, Platform, Wellness, and Sustainability."

Lee Jae-hyun, Chairman of CJ Group, stepped forward for the first time in 11 years to hold a new vision declaration ceremony and acquired the production company Endeavor Content, known for the film "La La Land," just two weeks later. The investment scale is about 1 trillion won, making it the third largest in history.

On the 19th, CJ Group's content affiliate CJ ENM announced that it would acquire 80% of the shares of the U.S. media and entertainment company Endeavor Group Holdings for $775 million (about 920 billion won). This is the third largest investment following the acquisition of Hanjin Transportation for 1.75 trillion won in 2011 and CJ CheilJedang's acquisition of the U.S. frozen food specialist Schwan's Company for 2 trillion won in 2019.

Endeavor Content is a subsidiary specializing in content planning, investment, production, distribution, and distribution under Endeavor, the largest agency in the U.S. Endeavor Content has participated in the production and distribution of Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning works such as "La La Land" and "Call Me by Your Name," as well as popular British BBC dramas like "Killing Eve" and "The Night Manager."

This acquisition of Endeavor Content by CJ ENM is a move to globally expand the culture business, one of the four major growth engines (Culture, Platform, Wellness, Sustainability) recently announced. CJ ENM is also pursuing the acquisition of SM Entertainment.

After Chairman Lee announced an investment of more than 10 trillion won over three years for future growth engines, affiliates have moved in unison to announce large-scale investment and merger and acquisition (M&A) plans. The core affiliate CJ CheilJedang acquired 76% of the shares of Dutch bio contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Batavia Biosciences for 267.7 billion won. Hanjin Transportation plans to invest 2.5 trillion won by 2023 to focus on nurturing an IT-based e-commerce logistics platform business.

Since CJ Group made a large-scale investment in Schwan's in 2018, it has focused on improving its structure rather than expanding its size for three years. The group's goal of achieving 100 trillion won in sales by 2020 also failed. Last year, CJ Group's consolidated sales amounted to about 32 trillion won. This is why Chairman Lee, with self-reflection, directly declared a "third leap" and is concentrating the group's full power on the four major growth engines.

A CJ Group official explained, "All group affiliates will actively invest and expand global platform businesses, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), centered on the four major growth engines declared by Chairman Lee Jae-hyun."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.