There were rumours that the CEO and CFO who came in a few years ago were the ones who had tried to sabotage (I think it was) the Tempo album, that's why there were so many issues with the release and that producer was posting insta stories about it. I don't remember much of that time because it was so long ago but people were claiming those two had a hateb*ner for EXO and that seems to have been the trigger for a new wave of 'mistreatment' claims.

I definitely think there have been some major misses when it comes to EXO's management, but at the same time, it's a business, so the company will treat EXO like a product and the K-Entertainment industry has always treated it's products the same when they get older.

The people demanding or predicting EXO will leave SM don't seem to realise if that happens the EXO brand, songs, themes etc, will all stay with SM and the members will essentially be starting again as a new band. Unless the new company they sign with can purchase the rights to that for a massive sum, or SM retain the rights but allow the members to keep using it for a fee, then they will still technically be under SM so what's the point?

I think it's more likely they may go for a sublabel under SM like SuJu, but again, it's a massive maybe. Until renewals actually come around all we can do is guess.

I do think a lot of the guesses of EXO leaving came from their last Radio Star interview where they basically called SM out on a few things then alluded to them having already discussed contract renewals with each other.