Report: More Details Emerge About WWE's Corporate Shake-Up
It's all about money...
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Jan 31, 2020
Last night,
WWEfired Co-Presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, shaking up the company's corporate structure. Frank A. Riddick III, a member of WWE's Board Of Directors, has been appointed as the Interim Chief Financial Officer.
The move took the wrestling world completely off guard but it is seemingly linked to WWE's Q4 2019 earnings report, which will be released on February 6.
The company'sstock price has also plummeted by 23.92 percent from $62.30 at close of trading to $47.40.
Within the press release announcing the shake-up,
WWE confirmed they had adjusted their expected profit in 2019 to $180 million.
According to Kamaron Leach and Christopher Palmeri at Bloomberg, this caused some investors to panic as the company previously forecast they would make as much as $370 million in profit earlier this year. The prediction was also lower than consensus estimates on the New York Stock Exchange, as they calculated the company would make $186.6 million.
In the wake of the change,
Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics.comhosted an emergency
podcastin which he discussed the reasons Barrios and Wilson were sacked.
He said the change was made partly because WWE's international TV deals have decreased in value in their two biggest markets, the UK and India. On January 1, the company's partnership with Sky Sports ended after 30 years and they moved to BT Sport for less money.
WWE
is also currently lacking a TV deal in India. Their five-year rights deal with Sony Six was not renewed on December 31, and WWE programming is airing on the station for free at the moment.
