Top manager who attended Vince McMahon’s shocking lesson regarding the sale of WWE. Vince McMahon left WWE for the first time in July 2022 after news of his sexual misconduct broke. Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon succeeded him in their roles as co-CEOs, and his daughter also took over as president.
Vince returned in 2023 to facilitate the sale of the Stamford-based company, which was eventually acquired by Endeavor and combined with the UFC to form TKO Group Holdings Inc.
Shareholder lawsuit sheds light on McMahon’s anticipated comeback
By this time, Stephanie had already decided to leave the company entirely, and Vince was appointed as executive chairman when he resigned again in January 2024 due to the sex trafficking scandal involving a former employee, Janelle Grant. However, the story does not end here.
A recent article from Post Wrestling, which is involved in an ongoing shareholder lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court, where plaintiffs accuse McMahon of breaching fiduciary duties by conducting the sale in a way that benefits his position rather than maximizing shareholder value, revealed via text messages that while Vince stepped down in July 2022, he was still expected to return.
Messages reveal McMahon’s influence despite official absence
Mark Shapiro, president and COO of TKO Group Holdings, said in a message that McMahon had only to return in a few months, change the board or take WWE private or sell Endeavor. Also, before the company was sold in 2023, it was revealed that Vince was already in talks with Ari Emanuel, CEO and Executive Chairman of TKO Group Holdings, in late 2022, even though McMahon was no longer part of the company.
His only formal authority during this period was his voting control, but this meant that any sale or merger of the company would require his approval. A week after this meeting with Ari, Emanuel, along with then-co-CEOs Stephanie and Nick, sent a series of messages to Vince, one of which read, “I will be your greatest partner,” alluding to the early strategic alignment between McMahon and Endeavor before the official sale process.
Testimony reveals why KKR couldn’t advance WWE bid
The year 2023 saw the sale of WWE, which attracted huge interest, including from the owners of Formula One, Liberty Media and KKR, a private equity firm. But, a recently revealed statement by KKR partner Ted Oberweger claimed that the company’s bid did not gain enough momentum before WWE and Endeavor finalized their deal. Ted says the company was never able to obtain the information needed to establish reserves or conclude the joint acquisition with Liberty.
Liberty Media emails raise questions about competitive nature of WWE merger
When the WWE and Endeavor merger was made public in April 2023, top managers of Liberty Media declared that the entire affair was not anti-competitive at all. In an email correspondence, Liberty’s former chairman and CEO, Greg Maffei, noted that the deal looked like it was already off the ground, which meant the deal was almost complete before the official process even began.
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