In an episode of his podcast, “83 Weeks,” WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff covered a range of topics. One of the highlights of the episode was the rumor that Vince McMahon might want to buy WWE back in the future.
Bischoff said, “Yeah, it feels that way [that it’s ‘close to’ never happening]. But when Vince McMahon is involved, I tend to lean into the ‘never say never’ a lot more. I mean, I can’t imagine a scenario where that would be plausible — take that back. I can’t imagine a scenario where that would be likely. However, it is plausible.”
On TKO not being interested:
“TKO may not be interested, but it’s a publicly held company. Depending on the offer, TKO has no choice but to be interested because they have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders to maximize shareholder value. And if Vince somehow, someway — I don’t know, let’s just throw Saudi into the mix — put together a fund that would make a legitimate offer for a publicly held company, interested or not it has to be entertained. Now, I know almost nothing about mergers and acquisitions, other than they suck, having been through one that didn’t turn out too well for anybody involved in the entire company. Not just WCW, but Turner Broadcasting as a whole. That was a disaster. It has gone down I think in financial business circles, as the AOL-Time Warner Turner merger being the worst corporate merger of all time. So that speaks for itself.”
On the chances of it happening:
“But it’s plausible. It is plausible that Vince could put together enough money to make an offer for a publicly held company that, because it would potentially have a positive impact on shareholder value, the offer would have to be entertained. You could probably find a million ways not to accept it, but it doesn’t mean you can’t not entertain it. That’s my take. And again, I don’t know enough; I’m not an expert. I don’t live in the merger and acquisition world, but I think I’m probably right or close to it.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
