Business mogul and WWE Founder Vince McMahon seems to be making headlines again as the TKO Group, the Endeavor-controlled owner of the wrestling giant, released a statement announcing that McMahon is selling 8.4 million of the shares he owns in TKO stock, with a street value of over $700 million.
This amounts to almost a rough 30 percent of the 28 million shares he owns in total.
Another interesting point to note here would be the fact that around $100 million worth of shares are being purchased by the TKO Group itself in the sale, with Endeavor and TKO CEO Ari Emanuel and president and COO Mark Shapiro expected to purchase $1 million each.
McMahon “will receive all of the net proceeds from this offering,” TKO said in a filing Thursday with the SEC.
TKO Group — the new company that holds both the UFC and WWE — just announced that Vince McMahon is selling 8.4 million shares of his TKO stock.That’s worth about $700 million, and it represents ~30% of his total holdings pic.twitter.com/IEzURZzG8R
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) November 9, 2023
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But, what is the TKO Group? Well, it was what was birthed when Endeavour spun out its UFC division and merged it with McMahon’s WWE back in September, creating a major sports media powerhouse.
The new company, known as TKO Group Holdings, went public in September to great fanfare, but there was massive debt that needed to be refinanced by 2026.
McMahon, who has the role of executive chairman of TKO Group, owned 16.4% of the economic interest in TKO when the deal forming the company closed in September.
McMahon stepped down as WWE’s chief executive in 2022 amid an investigation by the company’s board into alleged hush-money payments to women who accused him of sexual misconduct.
He said at the time that he “always denied any intentional wrongdoing and continues to do so.”
McMahon returned to the company in January 2023 as executive chairman to head up efforts to sell WWE.
He also went on medical leave in July after he had spinal surgery.
Vince McMahon listed as a “risk factor” in TKO’s SEC filing. pic.twitter.com/VFCEeCqQST— Wrestling News (@WrestlingNewsCo) November 7, 2023
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What all this could point towards is the possibility that McMahon finally wants out of the wrestling business.
Even since his return in 2023, it has been very apparent that McMahon has certainly not been as creatively involved with the WWE, since the merger happened. And with how things are panning out with Endeavor and him, it seems like Endeavor may want to kick him out as well.
He still remains as the Executive Chairman currently, but who knows what may transpire?