It's One of the Biggest Companies in the World, So, Who Owns WWE?

WWE (then WWF) launched their initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in October of 1999 with the issuance of stock valued at roughly $172 million. The price of one share then was $22. Its all-time high is $99.25, and its price at the time of writing this story is $48.24.

The first thing to clarify about WWE is that it offers Class A stocks (also known as common stocks) and Class B stocks (also known as preferred stocks). Of course, Vince McMahon is not only the Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO but the majority owner of the WWE too. Vince owns approximately 42% of the company's stock, which gives him the vast majority of voting power in the company (coming in at around 83%) and is a large part of his near-$2 billion net worth. In 2014, there was a time where Vince McMahon was taken out of the billionaire rankings due to shares taking a beating because of uncertainty about the business’ future. He lost $350 million at the time. Since then, he has re-entered the rankings.

The largest institutional owner of shares is Lindsell Train Ltd., a name likely foreign to even long-time fans. Lindsell Train is a firm in the UK with massive investments in Disney, PayPal, and eBay. They own 12% of shares, which gives them roughly 2.7% of the voting power.

Stephanie McMahon is Vince’s daughter and Chief Brand Officer of the WWE. She owns roughly 1.9 million shares in the company, which is about 2% of all shares. Most of these are Class B shares, giving her 5% voting power, the second most behind Vince. Stephanie isn’t the only family member with shares in the company, of course. Linda McMahon, former WWE President, holds just under 1% of all stock. Paul Levesque, known more commonly as Triple H, owns over 81,000, shares himself too, although all of those are Class A shares.

Another institutional owner is Vanguard Group, a multinational investment firm that holds 5% of all shares and is famous for being a large ETF provider.

Although the WWE views the foundation of their history as when Willie Glizenberg became the WWWF (World-Wide Wrestling Federation) President, but the actual history can be traced all the way back to the 1950s when it was under Capitol Wrestling Corporation. In 1982, Vince McMahon bought Capitol from his father, and he took several loans out to do so and get ownership as soon as possible. He did this for $1 million, which was massive back then but is pocket change to him no3.

Of course, it didn’t truly gain popularity until it became the World Wrestling Federation, which Vince applied trademarks for in 1980. Since then, fans have enjoyed The Golden Era, the New Generation Era, the famous and beloved Attitude Era, the Ruthless Aggression Era, the infamous PG Era, the Reality Era, and the current era, the New Era. Today, WWE has a net worth of approximately $5 billion.

Although Vince’s children Stephanie McMahon and Shane McMahon, are invested in the company, it’s widely believed that WWE will be handed off to Paul Levesque, also known as Triple H, Vince he retires/passes away. For a while, Shane was looked at as the future owner and was even called that, but things have changed for many reasons. Today, Stephanie and Shane have set roles at the company, and Levesque is reportedly prepared to run the company already.