IST Entertainment
IST Entertainment (Korean: 아이에스티엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean entertainment company under Kakao Entertainment.
Native name
아이에스티엔터테인먼트
A Cube Entertainment (2011–2015)
Plan A Entertainment (2015–2019)
Play M Entertainment (2019–2021)
Subsidiary
2011
Choi Jin-ho
Jang Hyun-jin (CEO)
Yoon Young-ro (CEO)
E&T Story Entertainment (2018–2021)
History[edit]
Plan A Entertainment[edit]
In 2011, A Cube Entertainment was established as an independent label of Cube Entertainment. A Cube signed its first solo artist Huh Gak[1] and launched girl group Apink, which was made up from former Cube Entertainment trainees.
In November 2015, LOEN Entertainment (later Kakao M and then Kakao Entertainment) acquired 70% of the entire label and subsequently absorbed it as an independent subsidiary. The label announced in March 2016 that it has been renamed Plan A Entertainment since it was no longer affiliated with Cube Entertainment.[2] It launched its first boy group Victon in November that year.
In early 2018, Plan A Entertainment acquired Kakao M's actor agency E&T Story Entertainment, owning 60% of the agency's shares. In the following months, Choi Jin-ho (founder and co-CEO) resigned and 30% of the remaining shares were sold for 3.51 billion won. As a result, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Kakao M.[3]