WWE’s stock price opened today down 17.8% from yesterday as WWE released their 2019 Q4 financial report. The stock has rebounded a bit but is still down around 10% as of noon ET. Last week, the stock went down over 22% in one day after the departure of co-presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson.
WWE said that revenue for the quarter was up 18% to $322.8 million compared to the same quarter last year, mostly driven by WWE’s new TV deals with USA and FOX going into effect. But WWE says that some of that additional revenue was lost on their live events. House shows have been a money-loser for WWE recently, which is a reason why they have started to cut down on them in the past few months. Still, this was the highest quarterly revenue in WWE history.
WWE Network subscribers were down 10% this quarter, with the average paid subscribers at 1.42 million.
In the report, WWE also talked about “strategic alternatives” for WWE Network. More on that here.
The Company is pursuing several strategic initiatives that could increase the monetization of its content in 2020 and/ or subsequent years. These include distribution of content in the Middle East and India as well as the evaluation of strategic alternatives for the Company’s direct-to-consumer service, WWE Network. At this time, the outcome of these initiatives is subject to considerable uncertainty.
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