Vince McMahon is back. "I hear ya a racist now, father?"

[d-d-d-dAz]

I’m not basing this anything of real substance, but the group I’d be looking at now would be CAA.

Close ties to Khan already, and would have a vested interest in using their purchase of WWE to add talent clauses to any new contracts.

WWE could become a more overt production line of multimedia stars and as they phase out from the world of wrestling, they drop right into CAA’s regular talent representation portfolio.

If you’re the worlds biggest talent agency, being able to ensure you get 30% of the pay from the next Rock, Cena or Batista by leveraging the purchase of an already financially self-sufficient company? That seems to make a lot of sense to me.

[Tommy!]

6 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

If you’re the worlds biggest talent agency, being able to ensure you get 30% of the pay from the next Rock, Cena or Batista by leveraging the purchase of an already financially self-sufficient company? That seems to make a lot of sense to me.

Wouldn't you have to manage and shift through the other 99.9% of bollocks for it. Surely it's better to just poach people who aren't useless on the very rare occasion they pop up for 20% without all the outlay and effort. 

[Infinity Land]

5 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

Wouldn't you have to manage and shift through the other 99.9% of bollocks for it. Surely it's better to just poach people who aren't useless on the very rare occasion they pop up for 20% without all the outlay and effort. 

What is now known as Endeavor (UFC owners, as well as a growing portfolio of other sports leagues and entertainment properties) formed out of two talent agencies. There's been a changing in the landscape where skimming from an athlete or Hollywood star isn't what it used to be.

It's easier to go straight to the source and skim directly from broadcasters and corporate sponsorship before it trickles down to talent.

 

[The Gaffer]

34 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

Wouldn't you have to manage and shift through the other 99.9% of bollocks for it. Surely it's better to just poach people who aren't useless on the very rare occasion they pop up for 20% without all the outlay and effort. 

That was my first thought. Hasn't it been the narrative for years now that WWE is at a loss to create any real crossover stars? 

We can blow the milk truck to kingdom come for Sami but he ain't it. Roman's been killing it for years now - and may eventually transition into other streams - but he's largely been doing it in an environment where he simply needs to be the guy in an era where the company, really, is the guy. The likes of Banks and Becky have genuine mainstream star potential, but on a much smaller scale than Cena, Rock etc. 

I guess they could use it as a talent farm to spot and pluck people in a way WWE aren't currently doing? A lot of investment for an unknown quantity, but I guess you're getting a company that made record profits in its sleep during years that were apparently the worst ever, creatively, when fans couldn't even get in the building. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

58 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

Wouldn't you have to manage and shift through the other 99.9% of bollocks for it. Surely it's better to just poach people who aren't useless on the very rare occasion they pop up for 20% without all the outlay and effort. 

Well, providing the business is profitable (or can be made so) the business plan for a takeover would bake in making your initial outlay back.

You could probably leave the bulk of the leaders in place (CAA would be comfortable leaving Khan in place, you’d imagine, and let him lead his team) and just let the business be.

Then, in addition to that you get access to a production line that has in recent times produced The Rock, Batista and John Cena. You turn that up to a 1000 and focus on making that what the business is about and in theory you have a production line of lead-ready actors.

But, yeah, if WWE makes money they’re selling from a position of strength as providing you can afford the purchase you’ll eventually make that money back. If on top of that you can monetise another angle, you’re laughing,

Alternatively, the other logical option would be a Disney I reckon; they could monetise the WWE universe as a franchise alongside their other big franchises and still try and influence talent to work on their movies etc

But, WWE being owned by CAA wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

 

[300]

I don’t think CAA have anywhere near the money needed to buy the WWE.

[d-d-d-dAz]

2 hours ago, 300 said:

I don’t think CAA have anywhere near the money needed to buy the WWE.

That’s not how corporate takeovers work. They don’t crack out the company credit card and ask for a VAT receipt. 

WME bought the UFC when their market valuation was around $6/7bn, and their now valued around $10bn.

Without sounding like Del Boy, It’s about speculating to accumulate. Providing the finances add up, buying WWE will increase their valuation and make them a ‘richer’ company

In terms of the finances, if CAA’s board decided a takeover of WWE was worth pursuing, they’d raise the funds on Wall Street with a debt resettlement plan over a number of years. The cost of paying their liabilities back will be baked into any takeover plan.

I was interested in this topic and did some digging earlier, and a lot of market analysts actually think WME are still a strong runner - potentially ahead of CAA. The idea of Vince McMahon, Dana White, Nick Khan and Ari Emanuel in a room makes me very, very happy.

Edited January 8, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[Tommy!]

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Without sounding like Del Boy, It’s about speculating to accumulate. Providing the finances add up, buying WWE will increase their valuation and make them a ‘richer’ company

That's not always how mergers work, to my knowledge, they often tank huge sums of money over the original purchase price in integration of the purchase into a wider group. The risk is that the new purchase is so far removed from the original strategy they keep chasing losses trying to get it to fit against resistance from the purchased company. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 hour ago, Tommy! said:

That's not always how mergers work, to my knowledge, they often tank huge sums of money over the original purchase price in integration of the purchase into a wider group. The risk is that the new purchase is so far removed from the original strategy they keep chasing losses trying to get it to fit against resistance from the purchased company. 

Private sales and wholesale takeovers aren’t the same as mergers.

You typically merge with category adjacent companies so that you can seamlessly ‘merge’. And, you’re right, The mergers that become problematic are the ones where they’ve overestimated their model similarities or face resistance, or unanticipated costs.

With a takeover, say it is CAA (for arguments sake), they’d raise the capital needed on the equity markets and then basically create a bubble universe for the WWE to operate in. It’d run as a business in its own right with oversight from the new parent - the parent company/purchaser would just try and find cross-industry synergies to maximise the value of the takeover (ie you do your wrestling thing over there, we’ll do our talent agency thing over here BUT if you have someone who might be a good actor, dibs on them…. Or, you do your wrestling thing over there, we’ll do our Disney thing over here BUT we might add you to a theme park and take The Miz for a month to put him in the new Star Wars film, if it’s a Disney).

With a merger, which would be with say AEW, for example, there’d need to be a full assimilation.

Edited January 8, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[WeeAl]

On 1/6/2023 at 6:37 PM, Keith Houchen said:

NEWM being correct as usual. 

 

Yup. It's Monday now, and from what I've seen, the sexual abuse is all being buried/not talked about/forgotten while they all discuss what may happen regarding a sale, and the backstage and TV ramifications.

Not that there aren't some people going after what should be the important story, but If there are some souls in the wrestling media with some integrity here, I haven't come across where it's been on display. 

Vince McMahon, multiple accusations of rape, sexual harassment, and workplace malpractice - crimes of power - uses said power to waltz back into a position where he can and will wield it again. The stories in the media should all be highlighting everything he has been accused of, and the potential future people that could be victimised because he has been able to come back in without hardly any negative press. 

Instead, it's the wrestling business as usual. 

 

[Infinity Land]

55 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

Yup. It's Monday now, and from what I've seen, the sexual abuse is all being buried/not talked about/forgotten while they all discuss what may happen regarding a sale, and the backstage and TV ramifications.

Not that there aren't some people going after what should be the important story, but If there are some souls in the wrestling media with some integrity here, I haven't come across where it's been on display. 

Vince McMahon, multiple accusations of rape, sexual harassment, and workplace malpractice - crimes of power - uses said power to waltz back into a position where he can and will wield it again. The stories in the media should all be highlighting everything he has been accused of, and the potential future people that could be victimised because he has been able to come back in without hardly any negative press. 

Instead, it's the wrestling business as usual. 

 

During the latest Strictly Business podcast with Eric Bischoff and Jon Alba they make vague references to why Vince left at the beginning, but they'll get to that later. They just want to focus on the "facts" and the business first.

Not long after Bischoff starts gushing that Vince is his hero for they way he took WWE public but kept all the control. Jon Alba realises its not a good look and for the first time references the sexual assault and harassment allegations. To which Bischoff would largely handwave and plays devil advocate. There's two sides to every story afterall, he should know he's had to deal with a couple of frivolous allegations. Choosing to focus on the couple of NDAs that originated from employer-employee relationships.

 

[TheBurningRed]

Stephanie’s gone. 

[FUM]

I know he owns the joint but I find this all absolutely mental. Also really annoying when the product has improved to a point I’m watching every week again as it is a matter of time before he turfs Trips out.

[Thunderplex]

Looks like Regals fucked then.  Back to the rainbow jizz splash for NXT.

[buba3d]

unless vince soon