After retiring from the WWE last year and stepping down from his duties as the CEO, Chairman and Head of Creative due to paying nearly $20 million in previously unrecorded expenses, almost $15 million of which were hush money for the sexual misconduct allegations he received from four women over the past 16 years and $5 million of which to the now-defunct foundation of former U.S. President Donald Trump, Vince McMahon forcibly made his way back to the company, returned to the Board of Directors and would ultimately be named the Executive Chairman of the Board. It was believed at the time that Vince would not be involved in the day-to-day affairs and the management structure would remain unchanged and the only reasons he would come back is to help the WWE be sold, while also helping the WWE with the talks for a new media rights deal.
WWE would end up being acquired by the Endeavor Group and would merge with the UFC to form one single company known as TKO Group Holdings. The merger would still be completed even though a search warrant was served and executed by the federal government after a federal grand jury signed off on a subpoena addressed to Vince McMahon last July 17th, although no charges have been filed against McMahon yet in connection to the hush money scandal.
TKO Group Holdings recently did a new SEC filing, where it was revealed that Vince McMahon, alongside two other TKO executives, will be selling stockholders in this offering, meaning that the WWE CEO and Executive Chairman, who holds 28.84 million TKO shares after the merger, which is currently valued at $3 billion, could leave the company. TKO also mentioned on the filing that Vince McMahon’s membership on the Board could expose them to negative publicity and it could directly or indirectly have adverse financial and operational impacts on their business.
According to AXIOS, the registration filings done by the TKO Group enables Vince McMahon to avoid the lockup period that applies to other TKO stockholders like Endeavor and Silver Lake, but Jacob Frenkel told LA Times that McMahon could face criminal or civil liabilities that may force him out of his WWE role.
