WWE sale the number one focus of investors

WWE being sold is a prominent focus of investors, even with the turnover at the top of company’s corporate ladder.

In an interview with Wrestlenomics, Brandon Ross of LightShed Media talked about investor interest in a WWE sale and what a sale would potentially look like.

“That potential sale has been the number one focus of investors, really since the allegations against Vince came out at the very beginning,” Ross said. “There’s always been this idea that, look, WWE is a pretty small company – there are a ton of larger entities that are looking for content, especially live content and they’d be a natural acquisition target for a number of companies. The big question on everyone’s mind is does WWE want to sell or not? And if you dial back or peel back that question, does the McMahon family want to sell or not?

“If you look at the UFC acquisition and how that was handled, they allowed Dana and UFC to run as their own separate entity while leveraging all the infrastructure of Endeavor to help make them better and unlock revenue opportunities. I think a really good example of that is on the sponsorship side and we all know that WWE has really been under-monetized from the sponsorship perspective for a long time.

“Also, if you look at, where does the profitability of this business come from? It’s on those types of rights deals and Nick is amazing at that, we all know his history at CAA and the involvement he’s had in the past on this. But Ari Emanuel is certainly no slouch and the idea of teaming those two up, you basically have a dream team approaching these types of negotiations as well.”

Vince McMahon retired from WWE in July. Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan took over as co-CEOs, while Triple H stepped in as Head of Creative for WWE and EVP of Talent Relations.

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