This is probably going to be the end of a lot of things.
Literal hours after Stephanie McMahon stepped down from her position as chairwoman of the WWE, her father Vince is back in the position. And with the rumor that he’s selling the company to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
The news comes from DAZN pro wrestling reporter Steven Muehlhausen. Reportedly, McMahon, who owns controlling stock in the company, has sold the company off to the fund, which will take the company off the stock market and return it to being a privately business.
This isn’t much of a surprise, though. McMahon stated that he was coming back for the explicit purpose of selling the company last week.
WWE is entering a critical juncture in its history with the upcoming media rights negotiations coinciding with increased industry-wide demand for quality content and live events and with more companies seeking to own the intellectual property on their platforms. The only way for WWE to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for me to return as executive chairman and support the management team in the negotiations for our media rights and to combine that with a review of strategic alternatives. My return will allow WWE, as well as any transaction counterparties, to engage in these processes knowing they will have the support of the controlling shareholder.
Granted, nothing seems to be set in stone, yet. But if this deal does go through, there are probably reasons behind it. One idea floated around is that he’s selling it to a party that doesn’t really care as long as it earns so that he can retain control. Regardless, expect things to move fast no matter how it goes.
Source: Yahoo! Entertainment
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