WWE, Inc.[6] (previously known as Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd, Titan Sports Inc., World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc., and World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.) (NYSE: WWE) is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales. It is currently the largest professional wrestling company in the world, reaching 13 million viewers in the U.S. and broadcasting its shows in 30 languages to more than 145 countries.[7] It promotes under two brands, known as Raw and SmackDown.
Vince McMahon is the majority owner, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. Together with his wife Linda McMahon, and their children Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon-Levesque (WWE Executive Vice President of Talent and Creative Writing), the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of the voting power in the company. The company's headquarters are located in Stamford, Connecticut with offices in Los Angeles, New York City, London, Tokyo, Toronto, and Sydney.[8]
WWE holds an extensive library of videos, representing a significant portion of the visual history of professional wrestling. The company began as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation in 1952, which promoted under the banner of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and later the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In 1982 it was sold to the same family's Titan Sports company, which later changed its name to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, before finally becoming World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002, and simplified to "WWE" in 2011.
World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc., known to millions of fans worldwide as the WWF, promotes and produces the unique spectacle of professional wrestling. The company's activities spread far and wide, touching on all aspects of an industry that generates well in excess of $1 billion annually. WWF produces roughly 200 live events a year, 12 pay-per-view programs a year, and two cable television programs. The company licenses its wrestling personalities for an enormous array of merchandise, publishes two magazines, RAW and WWF, and sells home videos and compact discs. WWF events are broadcast to 120 countries and translated into 11 languages.
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) is an integrated media and entertainment company. The Company’s operation consists of four segments: Live and Televised Entertainment, Consumer Products, Digital Media and WWE Studios. Live and Televised Entertainment’s revenues consists principally of ticket sales to live events, sales of merchandise at these live events, television rights fees, sales of television advertising and sponsorships, and fees for viewing its pay-per-view and video on demand programming. Consumer Products revenues consist principally of the direct sales of WWE produced home videos and magazine publishing and royalties or license fees related to WWE themed products, such as video games, toys and books. Digital Media revenues consist principally of advertising sales on its Websites, sale of merchandise on its Website through its WWEShop Internet storefront and sales of broadband and mobile content. WWE Studios revenues consist of receipts from the distribution of filmed entertainment featuring its Superstars.
Live and Televised Entertainment
Live and Televised Entertainment segment consists of live events, venue merchandise, television programming, advertising, pay-per-view programming and WWE classics on demand. Live events and television programming are the Company’s content and production activities. During the year ended December 31, 2009, the Company held 268 live events throughout North America. In 2009, the Company held 74 live events internationally. These events were spread over international tours throughout Europe, Latin America and Australia.
WWE’s venue merchandise business consists of the sale of its WWE-branded products at its live events, such as T-shirts, caps and other novelty items, which feature its Superstars and/or its logo. The Company produces seven hours of original weekly programming, 52 weeks per year. This programming is distributed domestically, internationally and via WWE.com. Its domestic programs are Monday Night RAW on USA Network, Telemundo, mun2 and Universal HD; A.M. RAW on USA Network; Friday Night SmackDown on MyNetworkTV; ECW on the Syfy Channel, and WWE Superstars on WGN America. Monday Night RAW is a two-hour primetime program that is broadcast live on USA Network. Its two-hour Friday Night SmackDown airs on MyNetworkTV in primetime on Fridays.
The Company provides sponsorships in the United States domestic market to meet the needs of its advertisers. Through these sponsorships, it offers advertisers a range of its promotional vehicles, including Internet and print advertising, arena signage, on-air announcements and pay-per-view sponsorship. In 2009, WWE televised 14 live pay-per-view events. WWE produced 14 domestic pay-per-view programs in 2009. The Company’s international pay-per-view partners include SKY in the United Kingdom, Premiere in Germany, SKY Perfect TV! in Japan, SKY Italia in Italy and Main Event in Australia.
WWE classics on demand is a subscription video on demand (SVOD) service that offers classic television shows, pay-per-view events, specials and original programming for a monthly subscription fee. Most of this material is drawn from WWE's extensive video library and includes other wrestling brands. WWE owns and controls the content from the vast libraries of such promotions as WCW, WCCW and AWA. WWE Classics On Demand is distributed with 14 cable operators in the United States, making WWE Classics on Demand available to more than 80% of video-on-demand enabled subscribers. North American distributors include Comcast Communications, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision, Mediacom, and Verizon Communications, among others.
Consumer Products
The Company’s consumer products include licensing, home video and magazine publishing. The Company has established a worldwide licensing program using its World Wrestling Entertainment marks and logos, copyrighted works and characters on a range of retail products, including toys, video games, apparel and books. Videogames and toys represent components of its licensing program. The Company has publishing licensing agreements with Simon & Schuster, Dorling Kindersley and Titan, which allows it to publish original content in a range of genres and formats, including fiction, histories, how-to, comics, and biographies and autobiographies. During 2009, WWE published eight books, including the New York Times bestselling WWE Encyclopedia, the autobiography of Rey Mysterio (Rey Mysterio: Behind the Mask), a history of D-Generation X (Are You Ready? The Unauthorized History of D-Generation X). The Company composes and records its music, including its Superstar entrance themes in its recording studio.
In 2009, WWE released 28 home video productions and shipped approximately 3.5 million digital versatile disc (DVD) and Blu-ray units, including catalog titles released in prior years. In September 2009, Vivendi Entertainment became its home video distributor, replacing Genius Products, LLC. WWE Magazine is a global men’s lifestyle publication with native language editions in Spain, Mexico, France, Germany and Greece.
Digital Media
The Company digital media segment includes WWE.com and WWEShop. WWE utilizes the Internet to promote its brands, create a community experience, markets and distributes its online and mobile products, and sells online advertising. WWE has local language Websites in 34 countries worldwide. Worldwide presence includes Japan, China, Italy, Portugal, Spain, India and all of Latin America with local Websites launched in Germany and France. WWEShop is the Company’s e-commerce storefront.
WWE Studios
WWE Studios creates a mix of filmed entertainment, including theatrical releases, direct-to-DVD films, television movies, series, animation, reality and other projects in development. WWE Studios has released four feature films: See No Evil, The Marine, The Condemned and 12 Rounds. WWE Studios has also released two direct-to-DVD films: Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia and The Marine 2. 12 Rounds was distributed by Fox and was released in March 2009. The Marine 2 was produced in conjunction with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and was released in December 2009. WWE Studios has also completed shooting the feature film, Knucklehead, Melora Hardin (The Office), Paul Big Show Wight (WWE), Dennis Farina (Law and Order) and Wendy Malick (Just Shoot Me).
By the mid-1990s professional wrestling had proven the problems of the early 1990s were only temporary. By the end of the decade, professional wrestling exuded more strength than it had at its peak in the late 1980s. Personalities such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Undertaker performed in front of capacity crowds, while WWF programming, which aired in 120 countries in 11 languages, earned record ratings and attracted a different ilk of sponsors. During the 1980s, professional wrestling drew sponsorship deals generally from snack food companies and automotive products makers; however, by the late 1990s the broadening of WWF's fan base attracted more distinguished sponsors, such as Warner Bros., Hasbro, Proctor & Gamble Co., Western Union, and the U.S. Army. The celebrities had returned as well, no longer fearing the stigma that had prompted their departure earlier in the decade. In 1998, two of the National Basketball Association's most popular players, Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman, battled against one another in the ring, the same year a former WWF wrestler, Jesse 'the Body' Ventura, was elected governor of Minnesota. In terms of revenue-generating capability, professional wrestling demonstrated remarkable prowess. The cornucopia of merchandise, ranging from toys and temporary tattoos to hot sauces, constituted a business valued in excess of $1 billion annually.
As McMahon prepared to lead WWF into the 21st century, his objectives were not limited to beating back the advances of rival WCW. Considering the popular appeal of the more than 200 live events staged by WWF annually and the company's consistent ranking as the highest-rated program on cable television, McMahon could entertain the prospect of mounting an assault against the purveyors of legitimate sport: the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, and Major League Baseball. In one of the last developments of the 1990s, McMahon renamed Titan Sports 'World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.' and took the company public. The debut of the 'WWFE' ticker symbol on the NASDAQ exchange in October 1999 marked the beginning of a new era in the company's history, one that promised to stir the emotions of professional wrestling fans in the years ahead.
Principal Subsidiaries: World Wrestling Federation; World Wrestling Productions.
Principal Competitors: World Championship Wrestling; National Football League; National Basketball Association; National Hockey League.
OVERALL
Beta: 0.60
Market Cap (Mil.): $762.82
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 74.06
Annual Dividend: 0.48
Yield (%): 4.66
FINANCIALS
WWE Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 20.82 25.72 21.66
EPS (TTM): -42.89 -- --
ROI: 10.63 2.95 1.89
ROE: 11.48 3.55 2.88
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated:1963 as World Wide Wrestling Federation
Employees: 386
Sales: $251.5 million (1999)
Stock Exchanges: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: WWFE
NAIC: 71132 Promoters of Performing Arts, Sports, and Similar Events Without Facilities; 71119 Other Performing Arts Companies
Key Dates:
1963: World Wide Wrestling Federation is formed.
1982: Vincent K. McMahon acquires his father's company.
1983: Hulk Hogan, wrestling for a Minneapolis promoter, is signed by WWF.
1987: More than 93,000 fans attend Wrestlemania III; annual ticket sales reach $80 million.
1988: Ted Turner forms rival WCW.
1991: Popular appeal of professional wrestling begins to wane; WWF is rocked by scandals.
1996: WWF stages a comeback; attendance and television ratings soar.
1999: Initial public offering of stock is completed.
Name Age Since Current Position
Vincent McMahon 65 Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
George Barrios 45 2008 Chief Financial Officer
Michael Luisi 45 2011 Executive Vice President - Business Development, General Counsel, Secretary
Michelle Wilson 45 2009 Executive Vice President - Marketing
Brian Kalinowski 44 2009 Executive Vice President - Digital Media, General Manager - Digital Media
Kevin Dunn 50 2008 Executive Vice President - Television Production, Director
John Laurinaitis 48 2009 Executive Vice President - Talent Relations
Stephanie McMahon 34 2007 Executive Vice President - Creative Development & Operations
Jared Bartie 41 2011 Executive Vice President
Michael Pavone 58 2009 Executive Vice President - WWE Studios
Andrew Whitaker 49 2010 Executive Vice President - WWE International
James Connelly 57 2009 Senior Vice President - Consumer Products
Basil DeVito 56 2010 Director
David Kenin 69 1999 Independent Director
Joseph Perkins 76 1999 Independent Director
Frank Riddick 54 2008 Independent Director
Jeffrey Speed 48 2008 Independent Director
Address:
1241 East Main Street
Stamford, Connecticut 06902
U.S.A.
Vince McMahon is the majority owner, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. Together with his wife Linda McMahon, and their children Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon-Levesque (WWE Executive Vice President of Talent and Creative Writing), the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of the voting power in the company. The company's headquarters are located in Stamford, Connecticut with offices in Los Angeles, New York City, London, Tokyo, Toronto, and Sydney.[8]
WWE holds an extensive library of videos, representing a significant portion of the visual history of professional wrestling. The company began as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation in 1952, which promoted under the banner of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and later the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In 1982 it was sold to the same family's Titan Sports company, which later changed its name to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, before finally becoming World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002, and simplified to "WWE" in 2011.
World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc., known to millions of fans worldwide as the WWF, promotes and produces the unique spectacle of professional wrestling. The company's activities spread far and wide, touching on all aspects of an industry that generates well in excess of $1 billion annually. WWF produces roughly 200 live events a year, 12 pay-per-view programs a year, and two cable television programs. The company licenses its wrestling personalities for an enormous array of merchandise, publishes two magazines, RAW and WWF, and sells home videos and compact discs. WWF events are broadcast to 120 countries and translated into 11 languages.
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) is an integrated media and entertainment company. The Company’s operation consists of four segments: Live and Televised Entertainment, Consumer Products, Digital Media and WWE Studios. Live and Televised Entertainment’s revenues consists principally of ticket sales to live events, sales of merchandise at these live events, television rights fees, sales of television advertising and sponsorships, and fees for viewing its pay-per-view and video on demand programming. Consumer Products revenues consist principally of the direct sales of WWE produced home videos and magazine publishing and royalties or license fees related to WWE themed products, such as video games, toys and books. Digital Media revenues consist principally of advertising sales on its Websites, sale of merchandise on its Website through its WWEShop Internet storefront and sales of broadband and mobile content. WWE Studios revenues consist of receipts from the distribution of filmed entertainment featuring its Superstars.
Live and Televised Entertainment
Live and Televised Entertainment segment consists of live events, venue merchandise, television programming, advertising, pay-per-view programming and WWE classics on demand. Live events and television programming are the Company’s content and production activities. During the year ended December 31, 2009, the Company held 268 live events throughout North America. In 2009, the Company held 74 live events internationally. These events were spread over international tours throughout Europe, Latin America and Australia.
WWE’s venue merchandise business consists of the sale of its WWE-branded products at its live events, such as T-shirts, caps and other novelty items, which feature its Superstars and/or its logo. The Company produces seven hours of original weekly programming, 52 weeks per year. This programming is distributed domestically, internationally and via WWE.com. Its domestic programs are Monday Night RAW on USA Network, Telemundo, mun2 and Universal HD; A.M. RAW on USA Network; Friday Night SmackDown on MyNetworkTV; ECW on the Syfy Channel, and WWE Superstars on WGN America. Monday Night RAW is a two-hour primetime program that is broadcast live on USA Network. Its two-hour Friday Night SmackDown airs on MyNetworkTV in primetime on Fridays.
The Company provides sponsorships in the United States domestic market to meet the needs of its advertisers. Through these sponsorships, it offers advertisers a range of its promotional vehicles, including Internet and print advertising, arena signage, on-air announcements and pay-per-view sponsorship. In 2009, WWE televised 14 live pay-per-view events. WWE produced 14 domestic pay-per-view programs in 2009. The Company’s international pay-per-view partners include SKY in the United Kingdom, Premiere in Germany, SKY Perfect TV! in Japan, SKY Italia in Italy and Main Event in Australia.
WWE classics on demand is a subscription video on demand (SVOD) service that offers classic television shows, pay-per-view events, specials and original programming for a monthly subscription fee. Most of this material is drawn from WWE's extensive video library and includes other wrestling brands. WWE owns and controls the content from the vast libraries of such promotions as WCW, WCCW and AWA. WWE Classics On Demand is distributed with 14 cable operators in the United States, making WWE Classics on Demand available to more than 80% of video-on-demand enabled subscribers. North American distributors include Comcast Communications, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision, Mediacom, and Verizon Communications, among others.
Consumer Products
The Company’s consumer products include licensing, home video and magazine publishing. The Company has established a worldwide licensing program using its World Wrestling Entertainment marks and logos, copyrighted works and characters on a range of retail products, including toys, video games, apparel and books. Videogames and toys represent components of its licensing program. The Company has publishing licensing agreements with Simon & Schuster, Dorling Kindersley and Titan, which allows it to publish original content in a range of genres and formats, including fiction, histories, how-to, comics, and biographies and autobiographies. During 2009, WWE published eight books, including the New York Times bestselling WWE Encyclopedia, the autobiography of Rey Mysterio (Rey Mysterio: Behind the Mask), a history of D-Generation X (Are You Ready? The Unauthorized History of D-Generation X). The Company composes and records its music, including its Superstar entrance themes in its recording studio.
In 2009, WWE released 28 home video productions and shipped approximately 3.5 million digital versatile disc (DVD) and Blu-ray units, including catalog titles released in prior years. In September 2009, Vivendi Entertainment became its home video distributor, replacing Genius Products, LLC. WWE Magazine is a global men’s lifestyle publication with native language editions in Spain, Mexico, France, Germany and Greece.
Digital Media
The Company digital media segment includes WWE.com and WWEShop. WWE utilizes the Internet to promote its brands, create a community experience, markets and distributes its online and mobile products, and sells online advertising. WWE has local language Websites in 34 countries worldwide. Worldwide presence includes Japan, China, Italy, Portugal, Spain, India and all of Latin America with local Websites launched in Germany and France. WWEShop is the Company’s e-commerce storefront.
WWE Studios
WWE Studios creates a mix of filmed entertainment, including theatrical releases, direct-to-DVD films, television movies, series, animation, reality and other projects in development. WWE Studios has released four feature films: See No Evil, The Marine, The Condemned and 12 Rounds. WWE Studios has also released two direct-to-DVD films: Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia and The Marine 2. 12 Rounds was distributed by Fox and was released in March 2009. The Marine 2 was produced in conjunction with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and was released in December 2009. WWE Studios has also completed shooting the feature film, Knucklehead, Melora Hardin (The Office), Paul Big Show Wight (WWE), Dennis Farina (Law and Order) and Wendy Malick (Just Shoot Me).
By the mid-1990s professional wrestling had proven the problems of the early 1990s were only temporary. By the end of the decade, professional wrestling exuded more strength than it had at its peak in the late 1980s. Personalities such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Undertaker performed in front of capacity crowds, while WWF programming, which aired in 120 countries in 11 languages, earned record ratings and attracted a different ilk of sponsors. During the 1980s, professional wrestling drew sponsorship deals generally from snack food companies and automotive products makers; however, by the late 1990s the broadening of WWF's fan base attracted more distinguished sponsors, such as Warner Bros., Hasbro, Proctor & Gamble Co., Western Union, and the U.S. Army. The celebrities had returned as well, no longer fearing the stigma that had prompted their departure earlier in the decade. In 1998, two of the National Basketball Association's most popular players, Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman, battled against one another in the ring, the same year a former WWF wrestler, Jesse 'the Body' Ventura, was elected governor of Minnesota. In terms of revenue-generating capability, professional wrestling demonstrated remarkable prowess. The cornucopia of merchandise, ranging from toys and temporary tattoos to hot sauces, constituted a business valued in excess of $1 billion annually.
As McMahon prepared to lead WWF into the 21st century, his objectives were not limited to beating back the advances of rival WCW. Considering the popular appeal of the more than 200 live events staged by WWF annually and the company's consistent ranking as the highest-rated program on cable television, McMahon could entertain the prospect of mounting an assault against the purveyors of legitimate sport: the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, and Major League Baseball. In one of the last developments of the 1990s, McMahon renamed Titan Sports 'World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc.' and took the company public. The debut of the 'WWFE' ticker symbol on the NASDAQ exchange in October 1999 marked the beginning of a new era in the company's history, one that promised to stir the emotions of professional wrestling fans in the years ahead.
Principal Subsidiaries: World Wrestling Federation; World Wrestling Productions.
Principal Competitors: World Championship Wrestling; National Football League; National Basketball Association; National Hockey League.
OVERALL
Beta: 0.60
Market Cap (Mil.): $762.82
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 74.06
Annual Dividend: 0.48
Yield (%): 4.66
FINANCIALS
WWE Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 20.82 25.72 21.66
EPS (TTM): -42.89 -- --
ROI: 10.63 2.95 1.89
ROE: 11.48 3.55 2.88
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated:1963 as World Wide Wrestling Federation
Employees: 386
Sales: $251.5 million (1999)
Stock Exchanges: NASDAQ
Ticker Symbol: WWFE
NAIC: 71132 Promoters of Performing Arts, Sports, and Similar Events Without Facilities; 71119 Other Performing Arts Companies
Key Dates:
1963: World Wide Wrestling Federation is formed.
1982: Vincent K. McMahon acquires his father's company.
1983: Hulk Hogan, wrestling for a Minneapolis promoter, is signed by WWF.
1987: More than 93,000 fans attend Wrestlemania III; annual ticket sales reach $80 million.
1988: Ted Turner forms rival WCW.
1991: Popular appeal of professional wrestling begins to wane; WWF is rocked by scandals.
1996: WWF stages a comeback; attendance and television ratings soar.
1999: Initial public offering of stock is completed.
Name Age Since Current Position
Vincent McMahon 65 Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
George Barrios 45 2008 Chief Financial Officer
Michael Luisi 45 2011 Executive Vice President - Business Development, General Counsel, Secretary
Michelle Wilson 45 2009 Executive Vice President - Marketing
Brian Kalinowski 44 2009 Executive Vice President - Digital Media, General Manager - Digital Media
Kevin Dunn 50 2008 Executive Vice President - Television Production, Director
John Laurinaitis 48 2009 Executive Vice President - Talent Relations
Stephanie McMahon 34 2007 Executive Vice President - Creative Development & Operations
Jared Bartie 41 2011 Executive Vice President
Michael Pavone 58 2009 Executive Vice President - WWE Studios
Andrew Whitaker 49 2010 Executive Vice President - WWE International
James Connelly 57 2009 Senior Vice President - Consumer Products
Basil DeVito 56 2010 Director
David Kenin 69 1999 Independent Director
Joseph Perkins 76 1999 Independent Director
Frank Riddick 54 2008 Independent Director
Jeffrey Speed 48 2008 Independent Director
Address:
1241 East Main Street
Stamford, Connecticut 06902
U.S.A.