On Thursday, WWE had its quarterly earnings call with investors, which is a nice reminder that this truly is a massive, global enterprise. The company posted earnings of $199 million for the second quarter, which includes WrestleMania 32 (the biggest Mania of all time). That’s an average of nearly $2.2 million a day in revenue, and it’s also the highest quarterly revenue total in WWE’s history. The call also revealed the WWE Network’s current subscriber base, which stands at 1.56 million subscriptions as of June 30 (with 1.51 million of those being paid subscriptions).
So despite sagging ratings, WWE’s overall business has been on the uptick. Another sports entertainment company on the uptick? The UFC, which was recently bought out for a whopping $4 billion. As a result, WWE’s stock jumped and the company was speculated to be worth upwards of $3.4 billion.
That is all nice and good, until you realize that the WWE is the epitome of a family business and the odds of Vince McMahon ever agreeing to sell to somebody are just shy of “no chance in hell” — or so we thought, until WWE CFO George Barrios was asked during the conference call as to whether the company would ever consider a sale along the lines of UFC’s blockbuster deal. His comments, via Wrestling-Online:
“I think that reflects the value people put on branded live content. So we think that’s great. And as far as the private transaction look, as you know us, we are always willing to listen and all we care about is doing what’s best for our audience, for our shareholders, and for our employees. So, if someone’s got a great idea, we’re open to listening to it.”
So if anyone out there has a trust fund burning a hole in their pocket and a notebook of fantasy booking ideas, this could be your opportunity.
