World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. Chairman Vince McMahon appears in the ring in the course of the WWE Monday Night Raw show on the Thomas & Mack Center August 24, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Vince McMahon plans to sell a considerable chunk of his stake in TKO, the parent company of WWE, the wrestling empire founded by his father, TKO said in a release Thursday
TKO’s stock fell 5% after the closing bell Thursday. The stock closed at $84.90 during regular trading.
McMahon intends to sell 8.4 million of his shares, price about $700 million. He owned greater than 28 million shares as of August, according to a regulatory filing.
The move might be a sign that McMahon plans to get out of his family business, which has been the dominant player in skilled wrestling for about 4 many years.
Earlier this yr, WWE merged with UFC to form TKO, which is majority owned by Endeavor Group, the talent agency and media company run by Ari Emanuel.
McMahon is executive chairman of TKO. In August, WWE said he was served with a federal grand jury subpoena related to allegations that he paid thousands and thousands of dollars in hush money to women who accused him of sexual misconduct. He said on the time he has “all the time denied any intentional wrongdoing and proceed to accomplish that.”
He also went on medical leave in July after he had spinal surgery.
Endeavor, meanwhile, is exploring strategic alternatives as its market value hasn’t lived up to expectations because it went public in 2021. Endeavor’s biggest shareholder, investment firm Silver Lake, said it could take the corporate private.