Vince McMahon is selling over 3 million shares of his holdings in TKO Group Holdings, the merged company of UFC and WWE, to Endeavor and TKO itself, earning him $311.2 million and reducing his ownership share to approximately 8 million shares.
Vince McMahon’s been slowly offloading his shares in TKO Group Holdings. This is the merged entity of UFC and WWE. In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission, McMahon’s set to sell over 3 million of his remaining shares. Endeavor and TKO are the ones buying back the stock.
Endeavor, if you didn’t know, is the parent company and the largest shareholder in TKO. McMahon’s selling a whopping 1,642,970 shares to them. The price? A cool $89.01 per share. That’s a discount from the current market price, which hovers just over $95 per share.
So, how much is Endeavor shelling out for this? A staggering $146.2 million. This purchase will bump up Endeavor’s overall ownership share in TKO.
Endeavor’s been making moves lately. They decided to go private again after selling to Silver Lake. That’s a private equity firm that already owned a big stake in Endeavor. They’re a talent agency turned entertainment conglomerate. Endeavor’s still the big dog in TKO, and this latest buy-back from McMahon only strengthens that.
There’s a second transaction too. This one’s for 1,853,724 shares at the same $89.01 price. TKO’s paying McMahon $165 million to buy back that stock. They’re using cash on hand and a revolving line of credit to fund the purchase. Then they’ll retire the stock, which is pretty standard for these types of buy-backs.
Once everything’s finalized, McMahon’s walking away with $311.2 million from the stock. This latest sale pushes McMahon further away from TKO. He resigned from the company after a lawsuit from a former WWE employee. The accusations? Sexual assault, sex trafficking, and other offenses. McMahon maintained his innocence but stepped away from TKO where he was the executive chairman.
His resignation marked the end of an era. The McMahon era with WWE, a company he founded and ran for over 40 years. This past weekend, WWE held the first ever WrestleMania event without McMahon at the helm. Many performers celebrated the new leadership, primarily headed up by WWE chief content officer, Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
McMahon’s been selling off his TKO stock for several months. The last transaction happened as recently as March. He dumped another $100 million worth of shares in the company.
Between all these transactions, McMahon’s raked in more than $1.4 billion from stock sales in TKO. After this latest sale, McMahon’s ownership share in TKO drops to approximately 8 million shares. He’s pledged 7.17 million of his shares “to secure his obligations under loans” from various banks, including Morgan Stanley.
While McMahon’s still a sizable shareholder in TKO, the stock available for the 78-year-old billionaire to sell is nearly all gone after this latest transaction.