Looks like the deal wasn't that good or at least not as good as they were expecting. Stock is going down a lot.
More on WWE television deal; Immediate stock market reaction and estimated figures (updated)
Thursday, 15 May 2014 14:14
WWE put out some cryptic notes a few minutes ago regarding the new contact, but it does not look good to Wall Street.
The stock at this moment has plunged in the 75 minutes to $16 per share, losing about 20 percent of its value since the close of the market on the news of the new television deal with NBCU.
WWE did not announce a new contract number, but estimated its television agreements in the U.S., U.K. and Thailand combined will be "approximately" $200 million.
That news would indicate the U.S. TV revenue of $106 million per year in 2013 would increase to roughly $160 million in 2015, far below the $280 million hoped for, let alone analysts who were throwing around figures of more than $400 million when seeing NASCAR ratings comparisons.
The release sent out after hours instead pushed the network, noting that they will break even on the network at 1.3 million to 1.4 million steady subscribers worldwide.
They also estimated that this year, the company would end the year with losses between $45 million and $52 million, but if they average 2 million to 2.5 million subscirbers in 2015, that company profit next year wouild be between $57 million and $105 million.
WWE at this point has not confirmed Smackdown remaining on Friday night, but the wording of the press release would indicate that.
