Wall Street analysts says Vince McMahon is planning on selling WWE

[detroitking02]

Lemelson Capital founder Emmanuel Lemelson, who manages one of the most successful hedge funds in the world, told Benzinga.com that he believes the McMahon family intends to sell WWE. Calling the company, "clearly an acquisition target," Lemelson said that although he doesn't expect WWE to have great numbers when the third-quarter subscriber count is announced on Thursday, he also doesn't expect share price to fall as the McMahons will protect shares to keep the sale price up.

Shore's Slant: Lemelson is very complimentary of the WWE brand and says that the company was worth $1 billion before they ever launched the WWE Network. Of course he also says that while WWE has poor fiscal management right now they have a strong creative management. For all his business knowledge, Lemelson doesn't appear to understand professional wrestling itself.

 

[Scrotie McBoogerballs]

If Vince sells it, one of his family will buy it.

 

[MERPER]

Good. The whole operation needs a shake up.

I hope someone buys it, moves them into a different TV deal and starts pushing buttons again reminiscent of the attitude era.

 

[stingray11214]

If Vince sells it, one of his family will buy it.

I do not know about that. Stephanie sold some of her shares last year. Shane has no interest in Pro Wrestling at this point. He is too busy running YOU on Demand with Beijing. I do see Comcast/NBCUniversal picking up WWE for a decent sum by 2020. Will it be "billions"? No. Maybe $10 a share + stock for WWE deal by Comcast. Nothing more than that.

 

[ShowOffHEEL]

I'm scared as to what would happen if the McMahon family ever did sell it.. It just wouldn't feel right..

 

[Scrotie McBoogerballs]

Like Disney buying Star Wars, it may end up better than you thought. Vince did great creating the WWE and getting it so far, but creatively they have been spinning their wheels for years now. He is out of ideas.

 

[Seosa]

In an ideal world, Shane would buy the company.

Vince finally retires to sail around the world on Sexy Bitch, sells to Shane who runs the corporate side of the business with Haitch running the wrestling side of the business, though of course both men would intertwine their roles with the other, Shane having a say in the product and Haitch having a say in the corporate side.

Problem is, this is fantasy, and if Vince were to sell he'd probably do what Turner did and sell to a soulless corporation who truly would turn up the fluffy PG volume. For all their failings, a WWE without the McMahons doesn't seem right at all.

 

[OYDK]

There is no way Vince would sell the WWE to somebody outside of the Mcmhaon family. The business has been in the Mcmahon family since it's inception in 1952 and has spanned 4 generations so far. Vince's grandfather was actually co-owner of the new Fed and not long after, Vince Sr was brought in as a partner. I don't think Vince Mcmahon would just sell his livelihood away, something he has been building and building for nearly 40 years. If Steph and Shane REALLY don't want to take ownership, there is always the HHH option.

If worse comes to worst, I can seel him selling it to a very close partner or somebody he has known and respected for a very long time. I just don't see this happening though.

 

[Wald]

Quite worried about that to be honest. For all the bitching we do about the McMahons at least they have an understanding of the history of their company and what it means to millions of people around the globe. A media group buying it and not getting the financial results they were expecting could look to close down rather than rejuvenate.

Could be worrying for no reason but what happened to WCW after Time-Warner merged with AOL should give every wrestling fan pause for thought.

 

[Navi]

Why would he sell though? It's not like he needs the money, and he has a ready made team to take over if he decides he wants to retire. Stephanie and HHH are capable of running the company with Vince's help from a distance.

Once you sell you have no control over what happens, and I think he's too invested in the WWE to take that chance. He's already started to pull back in a way by letting HHH take over the development side of it, and he's done a pretty good job. I think in the next 5 years, you're going to see less and less of Vince McMahon's hand in things, and more of HHH and Stephanie doing the day to day running of the business. Vince will almost retain some measure of control just in case, but as long as the business is making money, fans are happy, merchandise is selling, he'll leave it as it is.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Does this Lemelson have a big piece of WWE? Acquisition rumors can be fodder used in order to drive up a stock price. Investors hear that some megacorp is interested and they try to get in on a company stock as soon as possible.

There are pieces of WWE that have appeal but I can't imagine anyone with the capital looking to all out purchase wrasslin'.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Meh, I'm not particularly worried about this. I could be wrong, of course, but it just seems so unlikely that Vince McMahon would let someone outside of the family have control of WWE. WWE is Vince's baby, he's spent the past 30 years obsessively working on his baby to get it as close to his ultimate vision as it's possibly gonna get. As has been mentioned, it's not as if he needs the money. While his net worth fluctuates, as such things often do if you're someone who plays the stock market, his net worth is somewhere in the $800 million range last time I read anything about it. WWE's market cap is just a little over $1 billion, plus all the various assets the company has genuinely makes it a multi-billion dollar company.

Besides, this could all be something of a means of driving up the stock price. Whenever acquisition rumors of a big company being bought by a bigger company start making the rounds, it can often cause the stock price to go up significantly.

I could see Vince deciding to step down as CEO of the company and, depending upon who he has replace him, it could be a good decision. From an overall standpoint, Vince's booking decisions have been very hit & miss for a while. He's known for often flip flopping on booking choices, even if they're right smack in the middle of an angle and sometimes without regard as to what sort of damage such changes could have, but it's gotten worse the past few years. Plus, he's no spring chicken anymore no matter how much he tries to work out. He's 68 years old and maybe it's time to step down. I see a greater chance of that happening than allowing an outsider with no real knowledge of how pro wrestling works buy the controlling interest in the company if he can help it.

EDIT - The subscriber count for the WWE Network was just announced and, as of September 30th, it stands a 731,000. It's a slight increase of 4% from when the last count was announced in June and is up 71% from the time period between WrestleMania XXX and June 30th. They've also done away with the 6 month commitment, which is something that's been rumored to be coming for a while, and it'll simply be $9.99 per month and it's been announced that the WWE Network will be available in the United Kingdom in November. Not staggering numbers, but they did gain subscribers rather than lose them.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

The argument from Lemelson is that the company needs a management change, but they have bounced around as to whether they are shorting the company or going long on the company. Honestly, I don't see there being as many suitors for the WWE as they may think, plus a management change doesn't mean selling the company. McMahon is still the majority shareholder, and unless someone has a tremendous offer to throw in front of him, he's unlikely to sell when all he truly has to do is turn over the business management to someone else, and continue to rake in the dough.

From a buyer's standpoint, though, you have a company with anemic growth, a new sales channel that isn't lighting the world on fire, and is cannibalizing sales from PPV sales, has unknown and potentially ongoing exposure to wellness lawsuits and problems (much like the NFL), and is not nearly as family friendly as they like to pretend.

I don't see a sale happening.

 

[detroitking02]

I look at it like this Vince is almost 70 years old . We don't know his health maybe there's something we don't know. Linda McMahon is too busy with politics and if something happens to Vince would she want to run the company at her age? Also Shane is doing good in other ventures. As far as Stephanie and Hunter they'll probably stay on the board to have some input. I read on investor place a analysts saying awhile back that in a few years WWE will be short on Cash and profits have been poor as of late and the McMahon family will have to come out there pockets to run daily operations and then some which VKM which can eat up his fortune which he doesn't want and his age and that Comcast or Viacom will be a likely buyer of WWE.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Stephanie sold some of her shares last year. Shane has no interest in Pro Wrestling at this point.

For many years, I think Vince planned to leave the whole thing to his two children. The abandoning of his active position in the company by Shane McMahon was probably the key to any thoughts of possibly selling the business to someone else. After all, if Stephanie wants to consider working the business after her father leaves, how does Vince divide it up? Maybe he'd feel Stephanie deserves more than Shane since she'd still be actively running the place. It might be better to keep peace in the family by selling the place outright.

This subject reminds me that Vince Jr.'s own father sold him the business rather than leaving it to him, right? Seemed unusual to me since Vince Sr.'s son would presumably inherit all the assets anyway, yet there was that whole deal with Senior telling Junior he'd better not miss a single quarterly payment or forfeit the whole deal. Perhaps Vince remembers that whole mess and doesn't want to see it repeated.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

While we can't presume to know for sure, Vince has 2 kids... one of which is active in the business but has children/other commitments and one who left to forge his own entreprenurial career.

While I think Vince does want to sell to Disney (he wants that Kevin Fiege/George Lucas style seat on Disney's board) of the McMahon kids I actually see Shane being the one to come in and either buy his dad out or be a major part of whatever deal is done to retain some McMahon involvment.

While Shane did leave the company, it is wrong to assume that it's because "Steph and Hunter" were being given the keys to the kingdom. Shane had spent his entire adult life in the WWF, working literally every angle from referee, to wrestler to head of what became their social media. A lot of what you see today as a staple was pioneered by Shane with ideas like "Byte This". While Steph and Hunter arguably needed to learn the WWF business side of things, Shane already had all that grounding...what he needed was to go out into the real world, the business world at large and gain some experience.

He chose a risky project in the Chinese on Demand Market... one that required substantial capital investment, so he sold out his WWF shares. But ultimately it was a project that was very successful. He now holds something like $25m worth of WWE stock against Steph (who sold a lot, possibly to Shane) holding about $35m so he's not out of the WWE business by any stretch. He also sat on the board of one of the major talent agencies in the world... giving valuable experience of how business is done OUTSIDE of the WWE/Wrestling bubble.

Working with the Chinese will have taught Shane a lot and most importantly shows that decisions he has made have succeeded. It's easy to run a department in "daddy's company" where he ultimately makes the final calls... but that doesn't prepare you to make those calls yourself... that is what Steph and Hunter don't have in their locker... Shane has gone out into the business world and had to live or die by decisions made... and in the main he's succeeded spectacularly when compared to his dad's record away from wrestling.

If Vince does sell, I can see him preferring the Disney option because it will finally cement the "Billionaire" thing and they do tend to let the IP originator or head guy stay around. But I can equally see a scenario where he wants to sell to his kids... I can't see Steph wanting it... with 3 kids growing up and her husband so involved I can see her stepping away more if anything, into the role Linda has always had. Hunter doesn't have the business acumen or experience to run the company, but Shane now has the funds, the success outside WWE and the respect of all within it for his experience there... he and Hunter with Steph in the reduced role together could in fact be the "Dream Team" to make WWE a true success again.

But Disney are hoovering up established IP's at a rate of knots... they are gonna be VERY cash rich once Avengers 2/Star Wars money hits and WWE is an easy IP grab for them... they can use the likenesses for endless cartoons, merchandise and retain the PG value...

With Shane and Hunter, you'd likely see a more varied product but WWE staying true to its roots.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Good. The whole operation needs a shake up.

I hope someone buys it, moves them into a different TV deal and starts pushing buttons again reminiscent of the attitude era.

So you want to see shittier wrestling and Jerry Springer inspired stories? No thanks. I'm a pro wrestling fan.


I don't think Vince is selling. Unless it's to a group that Triple H heads.

 

[boozinjedi]

I just don't see it happening,It would have to be one hell of an offer to get Vince to sell.
As long as the company has been in the family.

 

[MERPER]

So you want to see shittier wrestling and Jerry Springer inspired stories? No thanks. I'm a pro wrestling fan.


I don't think Vince is selling. Unless it's to a group that Triple H heads.

I think the stories right now are pretty shitty, so a shake up with some better stuff would be for the better.

 

[New Hot Fed]

It could be a situation like when Marvel was bought by Disney. In that Disney got them but they realised that Marvel were so efficient at running their ship, running their super-hero movies business that they let them do their thing. A corporation could say "your brand is so strong, we'll let you and your family run the WWE still". And the ones working for the corporation like HHH and Steph would get a good salary. Of course all the profits would go to that corporation from now on, though.

 

[jmt225]

It's wishful thinking to believe Vince would ever sell the company.

Just ask yourself this, what would Vince do with himself without WWE? What would he have to live for? Money? He's already had that for over 30 years now. He's not the kind of guy to just buy a super mansion somewhere and settle down.

Vince will have the WWE until he dies. That is a fact. I can't stand Vince sometimes myself and I would be highly intrigued in seeing the company get sold, but it's never going to happen. Never.

 

[Nada]

I remember Star Wars fanatics saying the same things said here "Lucas/Vince would never sell!" and voila.

In general companies the size of WWE in todays world are swallowed up by bigger ones, as the big companies are looking for more acquisitions.

If Vince does sell it, it would be a admission that he does not trust anyone to really run the company. He has been grooming Steph and Hunter for years, if not decades. It would be far more beneficial to them, not just monetary wise but also for other reasons to sell it. Perhaps he does not want his daughter to be known as the woman who tanked the company in 10-20 years.