The profits for last year are out for the "Big 3" in k-pop -- SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment.

Late last March, the audit reports containing sales, operating profits, and net profits, for SM and JYP were revealed for the fiscal period January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. The last of the trio, YG's reports were completed on April 12th.

One thing to note is that all three companies saw their best year in terms of sales and net profit. The total of sales from all three formed a figure over 150 billion won. Needless to say, SM, YG and JYP were all in the black last year.
Starting off with SM Entertainment, which is a KOSDAQ listed company, 2010 brought in 86,400,960,000 won in sales. This was 25 billion won more than 2009's figures which was the highest SM had seen until that point.

After the cost of materials and labor were taken out, the operating profit totaled at 25,475,810,000 won. This was more than a 15 billion won increase from 2009. Also, the net profit broke the 20 million mark for the first time, standing at 21.8 billion won. In 2009, SM only pulled in 4.4 billion won in net profit.

As for YG Entertainment, it earned 44,772,890,000 won in sales, 10,345,040,000 won in operating profit, and 9,768,240,000 won in net profit. 2009 was YG's best year all across the board, but 2010 replaced all records with higher figures. In 2009, sales was roughly 35.7 billion won, operating profit about 7.4 billion won, and net profit about 4.2 billion won.

JYP Entertainment did not disappoint either. The company recorded 21,680,120,000 won in sales for 2010. This is almost doubled the figure of 10.2 billion won in 2009. Operating profit last year stood at 5,903,990,000 won, surpassing the 230 million won from 2009. Even more astonishing was the strong net profit figures in the black. JYP saw figures dip into the red in 2009 after generous investments were made into debuting its group Wonder Girls in the US. After the minus 4.7 billion won it saw in 2009, JYP made a comeback in 2010 with 900,004,340,000 won in net profit.

SM Entertainment is headed by Lee Soo-man, representing top stars such as BoA, Super Junior, Girls Generation, SHINee, f(x), Kangta, etc. YG Entertainment was founded by Yang Hyun-suk, managing big names like Big Bang, 2NE1, Se7en, Gummy, PSY, etc. Last but definitely not least, JYP Entertainment is led by Park Jin-young, having created acts such as 2PM, Wonder Girls, 2AM, etc.

Source: http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/entertainme...il.htm?No=14561