Endeavor and TKO buying back more stock from Vince McMahon, who still owns plenty

Disgraced former WWE chairman Vince McMahon continues to sell off millions in shares in TKO stock, but the company can’t get fully rid of him just yet.

After a series of TKO stock sales in the past year, McMahon is selling almost 3.5 million shares back for a little over $300 million.

As noted by Deadline, an SEC filing shows that Endeavor Group said it would buy shares worth about $146.2 million while TKO Group Holdings, which Endeavor controls, is buying some of McMahon’s shares at $165 million.

Per Variety, McMahon has now earned around $1.5 billion through his four TKO stock sales since November.

The sell-off comes after Mark Shapiro, president and COO of TKO and Endeavor, said on TKO’s quarterly earnings call in February that McMahon still owned around 20 million shares and that the company was “on the sideline” as it waited to see if he would sell more.

When asked on that call if the company might buy back more shares from McMahon, Shapiro said at the time that they would “have a look” but that they were not currently in discussions with the former WWE chairman. He also confirmed that McMahon would not be returning to the company in any official capacity.

“We’re not having any discussion with him,” Shapiro said in February. “He’s given us no point of view on his motive or his plans to sell or not sell, or if he does, how much. So, we’re going to wait around and find out just like you.”

Now they know.

McMahon, who oversaw the WWE/UFC into a $21.4 billion sale that created TKO, exited the company as chairman (for the second time) in January 2024 following revelations that he was being sued by a former employee over sexual assault and sex trafficking claims. Since then, TKo and WWE have attempted to distance themselves from McMahon despite his decades-long iron grip as the face of the company where the culture he helped create also protected him.

[Deadline, Variety]