Tag: TKO Business

Update on Vince McMahon’s TKO stock ownership

Posted on by Josh Nason

As mentioned during an interview last week, Vince McMahon remains as a TKO shareholder with an SEC regulatory filing Thursday showing just how much he still owns.

In an SEC 13G filing, McMahon’s current allotment sits at 8,021,405 shares as of September 30th of this year. The reason for the filing is that he exceeds 5% ownership of a specific class of stock which requires disclosure. In this case, his shares account for 9.88% of class A stock but his portion of all TKO shares remains under 5%. He has no voting rights.

In a talk with CNBC, TKO chief operating officer Mark Shapiro noted he had breakfast with the former TKO chairman recently “just to check in” following the recent Netflix docuseries drop. He said he hadn’t heard from McMahon at all and “wanted to see where he was” with everything. During that interview, he said McMahon still was a stockholder but was not involved in any TKO business, nor was he asked his opinion on anything. He said McMahon “couldn’t have been more positive” about the direction of WWE, but specifically said he wasn’t asked for his opinion.

McMahon remains under federal investigation following the Wall Street Journal exposed hush money scandal with the current sexual misconduct lawsuit against him by Janel Grant put on pause as the federal case continues.

Reports recently emerged that McMahon is preparing to launch an entertainment company that includes several former WWE executives.

TKO merges WWE & UFC live events teams

Posted on by Josh Nason

The post-merger departmental changes continue for TKO as the company has combined the WWE and UFC live events teams.

Announced via a press release Thursday, the newly-named live events strategy team “will drive revenue growth strategies across key areas, including live event development and scheduling, tourism incentive programs, ticketing, and fan experiences. This new structure aligns with TKO’s efforts to leverage the power and expertise of both UFC and WWE to maximize event revenue potential and pursue growth opportunities and cost synergies.”

A major effort for both entities is to drive site fees to host shows, even extending to weekly TV like Raw and SmackDown events.

Longtime UFC executive Peter Dropick will head up the group. He will work with TKO leadership as well as Dana White, Nick Khan and Paul Levesque to help bolster the efforts.

Both companies have been on fire at the box office for some time. The release noted that in Q1 alone, WWE “set 54 individual market records for both gross and paid tickets across all event types, including 17 consecutive sellouts for televised events.”

WWE touts financial success of WrestleMania 40

Posted on by Josh Nason

As expected, WWE WrestleMania 40 was a massive financial success for TKO in their first such one under the new ownership regime.

The company sent out a release Tuesday pointing to several key highlights in what they are saying is the “most successful and highest-grossing event in company history.”

In the release, TKO stated this year’s WrestleMania broke last year’s gate record by 78% but did not provide the actual gate revenue. The company reported last year’s two-night event brought in more than $21.6 million in gate revenue which would mean this year’s two-night event generated nearly $38.5 million in gate revenue. 

They did not provide a per-night breakdown of the gate number, but Paul “Triple” Levesque said Saturday that night one broke the company’s single-night gate record in WWE history which was previously held by WrestleMania 32’s $17.3 million.

They announced 145,298 in total attendance at Lincoln Financial Field which has yet to be independently corroborated. 

Other reported highlights:

  • Viewership was up 41%. A breakout of Peacock vs. international WWE Network viewers was not provided, nor a definition of what “viewership” means to TKO.
  • Merchandise sales hit a new record, up more than 20% over last year’s WrestleMania 39. No financial specifics were provided.
  • In its first year, the company’s WWE World fan event, in partnership with Fanatics Events, was the highest-grossing and most-attended fan event in company history.
  • They reiterated the strength of the go-home SmackDown (largest gate in SD history), Raw after WrestleMania (largest gate in Raw history) and Saturday’s NXT Stand & Deliver which was the most attended NXT ever with an announced 16,545. However, they did not announce that the NXT gate was the largest ever.