The South Korea-owned HYBE has acquired Atlanta Hip-Hop label Quality Control, the Hollywood Reporter has reported. Quality Control was co-founded by Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas.
Quality Control (QC Media Holdings) which has developed Migos, Lil Baby, City Girls and Lil Yachty has been acquired by Hype as part of its push to break into the North American market. HYBE has developed iconic K-Pop groups like BTS, Tomorrow X Together and Lee Hyun.
Established in 2005 and known as Big Hit Entertainment until 2021, the South Korean music-industry power-house HYBE operates as talent promoter, music talent agency, label company and an event management and production company.
Under its new CEO, Scooter Braun, HYBE is looking to expand outside the Asian Market. HYBE and QC holdings have reportedly closed out the deal for 314 billion Korean Won or $300 million.
QC Holdings is HYBE’s second major acquisition in the United States after it bought Ithaca Holdings (home to Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande) for a whopping $791 million and merged it into HYBE America.
QC Holdings Pierre “P” Thomas issued a statement to the media confirming the acquisition,
“HYBE are perfect partners for Quality Control as we come together to take our story and work global. All of HYBE’s leaders are entrepreneurs with phenomenal combined history finding talent and taking it to the highest levels.
“Taking QC worldwide requires key partners like this who understand building something from the bottom and aiming sky high. It matters to us greatly their grasp of culture and acutely seeing what QC has built and the limitless path of where it can go.”
“Over many years Scooter and I have cultivated real trust and a common way of looking at the world and culture. An added bonus of this partnership is the fact that both QC and HYBE have existing relationships with the UMG family and that will create an easy flow that will benefit the artists.The artists of QC are our focus and their best interests will be incredibly supported with this partnership.”
HYBE CEO Jiwon Park also released a statement about the acquisition.
“Based on hip-hop, QC has been making a strong presence in the American music scene. With our shared vision, I have high hopes in what we can operate and achieve together.”
“P and I are ecstatic about this partnership with Scooter and HYBE and are confident they can get us to our global ambitions we’ve had in our scope since the beginning of the company as nothing means more than our artists impacting worldwide. Over many years, Scooter and I have cultivated real trust and a common way of looking at the world and culture.”
