WWE’s McMahon makes multimillion stock sale
STAMFORD — WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon sold about $22 million in company shares late last month, a move that comes nearly a year after he made a nine-figure stock sale to help finance the professional football league that he is relaunching.
McMahon made the Nov. 30 sale by converting 306,000 “Class B” shares to “Class A” shares and then selling the Class A stock for prices between $74.12 and $75.49, according to records submitted last week to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
WWE officials declined to comment on the transaction.
In December 2017, McMahon sold about $100 million of shares to fund Alpha Entertainment LLC, which is financing the revival of the XFL football league.
XFL announced last week the eight host cities, including New York, for its inaugural 2020 season.
“It certainly appears that this (stock) transaction is directly related to McMahon’s promised financing of the new XFL,” said Josh Shuart, chairman of marketing and sports management at Sacred Heart University. “It does not appear to be anything to worry about, as it represents only about 1 percent of (McMahon’s ownership of) the WWE company.”
Greenwich resident McMahon, 73, has said he would continue as WWE CEO and chairman, while he leads the XFL’s return.
“While he has provided the company assurances that his focus on WWE will not be diverted by these efforts, any such diversion or perception of such diversion could adversely affect our operating results and could have a material adverse effect on our stock price,” the company said in another SEC filing in February
McMahon remains WWE’s majority Class B shareholder, with about 31.9 million shares. His stock would be worth a total of about $2.4 billion if sold at the company’s current share price of about $75.
WWE stock surged to nearly $100 in late September, but it then shed about one-third of its value in the next two months. The decline did not necessarily relate to McMahon’s activities, as a range of factors related to a company and broader economic forces can affect share prices.
In the past three weeks, the stock has rebounded by about $15.
Among other recent moves, WWE announced last week two new board members: Man Jit Singh, a former Sony Pictures Entertainment president, and Alan Wexler, CEO of marketing and technology firm, Publicis.Sapient.
Other board members include WWE Co-Presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson; Stephanie McMahon, WWE’s chief brand officer and McMahon’s daughter; and Executive Vice President Paul “Triple H” Levesque, a 14- time WWE heavyweight champion and husband of Stephanie McMahon.
In the third quarter, WWE’s revenues reached about $188 million, up 1 percent from a year ago. Profits totaled about $34 million, up 54 percent from a year ago. The bottom line included an income-tax benefit of about $16 million.