Vince McMahon Sells $100 Million of WWE Stock: Just One-Third of 2023 Shares Remain

Vince McMahon's WWE days are done. The longtime executive resigned from his position as TKO Executive Chairman this past January following a lawsuit that accused him of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. This lawsuit significantly altered the course of WWE, as the sports-entertainment giant has all-but scrubbed McMahon from its existence, blurring his face out in the WWE 2K24 video game and removing him from promo packages shown on WWE programming. While WWE has been doing everything in its power to distance itself from its former head, McMahon himself still controls some of his fate in the form of TKO's stock, but even that weight has gradually dwindled.

Vince McMahon Executes Third Massive Stock Sale

Vince McMahon's shareholding power decreases further.

As evident by a new SEC filing, McMahon has sold 3.484 million TKO shares to an unidentified bank for roughly $100 million. These shares were transferred over the course of 15 business days from March 5th to March 25th.

This time just six months ago, McMahon owned over 30 million shares of TKO stock. He sold 8.4 million of his shares in November 2023, diluting his shareholding ownership by roughly 25 percent. This past January, McMahon was reported to have owned about 20 million shares of TKO stock, a number that decreased further when he sold another 5.35 million shares. This sale of 3.484 million more shares bring his ownership down to around 11.5 million shares, meaning McMahon has sold about two-thirds of his TKO stock in the past half-year alone.

It's also worth noting that in TKO's most recent 10-Q, the company disclosed that McMahon has pledged 3.484 million of his Class A shares as "collateral to secure his obligations under a prepaid forward contract with Morgan Stanley Bank" and pledged another 7.17 million shares as "collateral to secure his obligations under loans from Morgan Stanley Private Bank, National Association." TKO mentioned that "some or all" of those shares could end up being sold by the banks "upon the occurrence of events set forth in the applicable documents governing such obligations."

McMahon is currently facing a lawsuit that accuses him of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. The lawsuit, filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant, was made public this past January and resulted in McMahon resigning from TKO entirely. While McMahon has stepped down from corporate positions in the past during the wake of scandals, WWE now being owned by an external company leaves McMahon's fate in the hands of people other than himself.

"We don't know his motives, his plans or his timeline," TKO President Mark Shapiro said of McMahon. "He doesn't work for the company, doesn't come into the office and he's not coming back to the company. And that's where we sit."