Is WWE a Corporation?
Contents
Get the answer to the question “Is WWE a Corporation?” and find out more about the business structure of the professional wrestling organization.
WWE is a Publicly Traded Company
WWE is a publicly traded company with the ticker symbol WWE. As of May 2020, WWE has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion. WWE is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.
WWE is a public company, meaning that it is owned by shareholders who can buy and sell shares of the company on the stock market. WWE’s IPO was in 1999, and the company has been publicly traded since then. As of May 2020, WWE’s stock price is $44.12 per share.
WWE has two classes of shares: Class A common stock and Class B common stock. Class A common stockholders have one vote per share, while Class B common stockholders have ten votes per share. Vince McMahon, WWE’s Chairman and CEO, owns 82% of the Class B shares outstanding.
WWE is a For-Profit Organization
WWE is a for-profit organization, meaning that it reinvests its earnings back into the company to finance further growth. While WWE does not disclose its financials publicly, we do know that it is a multimillion-dollar business. In recent years, WWE has been valued at close to $3 billion.
WWE is a Media Company
WWE is a publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling. Vince McMahon is the majority owner, Chairman and CEO of the company. His wife Linda McMahon owns 25% of WWE’s outstanding Class A common stock and serves as the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Their daughter Stephanie McMahon owns 9% of Class A common stock. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Istanbul and Tokyo
In 1998, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) – which McMahon also owned – took on the name of its leading brand, “World Wrestling Entertainment” (WWE), after being involved in a legal battle with the World Wildlife Fund over the “WWF” initialism.
WWE is a Sports Entertainment Company
While WWE is technically categorized as a corporation, it is important to note that WWE is primarily a sports entertainment company. This means that while WWE does have traditional corporate structure, the main focus of the company is to entertain its fans through its live shows, television programs, and digital content. As such, WWE operates differently than most corporations, and its business model is based more on entertainment than ontraditional corporate profit margins.
