Vince McMahon In Charge For Foreseeable Future

Vince McMahon filed a Form 8-K with the SEC today. A couple of big news items came out of the filing.

First, Vince filed this to allow for WWE to have more liquidity, aka cash, while dealing with all the Coronavirus uncertainty. Filing this form allows him to do so without losing power in the company.

The other newsworthy piece was the last sentence. It declares Vince doesn’t have any plans on going away anytime soon. Wonderful. I guess the one guy Vince won’t ever give up on is himself.

You can read the full filing below:

On March 24, 2020, Vincent K. McMahon (“Mr. McMahon”), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (the “Company”), entered into a variable prepaid forward contract with an unaffiliated bank (the “Bank”) covering approximately 3.5 million shares of the Company’s Class B common stock. The variable prepaid forward contract is scheduled to settle on specified dates in March 2024, at which time the actual number of shares of the Company’s Class A common stock to be delivered by Mr. McMahon will be determined based on the price of the Company’s Class A common stock on such dates, with the aggregate number not to exceed approximately 3.5 million shares, which is the number of shares of Class B common stock pledged by Mr. McMahon to secure his obligations under the contract. Subject to certain conditions, Mr. McMahon can also elect to settle the variable prepaid forward contract in cash and thereby retain full ownership of the pledged shares.

Mr. McMahon entered into the variable prepaid forward contract to provide current liquidity while allowing him to maintain voting and ordinary dividend rights in the stock, as well as the ability to participate in future stock price appreciation, during the term of the contract and thereafter if Mr. McMahon settles the variable prepaid forward contract in cash.

The shares covered by the variable prepaid forward contract represent approximately 4.5% of the Company’s total outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock. The variable prepaid forward contract does not apply to the approximately 25,198,344 other shares of Class B common stock beneficially owned by Mr. McMahon. Those shares represent approximately 70.5% of the Company’s total voting power. The variable prepaid forward contract contains a 60-day lock-up restricting Mr. McMahon’s ability to sell or transfer additional shares of the Company’s common stock during such period without the Bank’s prior approval. Mr. McMahon has informed us that he intends to continue in his capacity as the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for the foreseeable future.