A lot has changed within WWE over the past week. Not only has Vince McMahon retired, but Triple H has taken over as Head of Creative. Following McMahon’s announcement on Friday, the WWE saw an increase in its stock by more than 7%.
Now that McMahon has departed the company, many have speculated whether WWE could be inching closer to a possible sale somewhere down the line. Deadline spoke to media analyst Alan Gould of Loop Capital about the possibility.
“This is a challenging environment with the equities of most of the logical buyers depressed, but there is demand for live event programming, and it is the first time that one could realistically think that WWE could be for sale,” said Gould.
He would go on to list several potential buyers, including Netflix and Disney:
Comcast: “Represents almost a third of WWE revenue and CEO Brian Roberts has always prioritized long-term shareholder value. But, especially after the $39 billion Sky acquisition, it may be tough to justify reducing the Comcast share buyback program to acquire WWE.”
Disney: “Airs the UFC, and WWE could be strong companion programming with weekly shows. But its balance sheet is still stretched from the Fox acquisition and the pandemic and it’s got to pay $9 billion+ plus in January 2024 to buy the remaining third of Hulu from Comcast.”
Amazon: “Has been buying more sports programming.”
Netflix: “Less likely as it has avoided sports and event programming, but WWE is a hybrid of entertainment and sports, it has a global following, runs 52 weeks per year, and is much lower cost than most sports programming. However, NFLX shares are down dramatically.”
Fox: “Airs SmackDown. But it only has a only a $16B EV (enterprise value – market cap, debt and cash) so a WWE acquisition hard to justify.”
Speculation on a potential sale had picked up following the pandemic era and the downsizing of WWE staff. WWE’s stock finished at $69.39 as of Tuesday.
For more WWE news, follow us on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
