For any member of the WWE Universe who has ever wanted to own a piece of World Wrestling Entertainment, October 25, 2000 proved to be a banner day. That Wednesday in lower Manhattan, to great fanfare, the company went public on The New York Stock Exchange.
In the years following that successful public offering, WWE has grown into a truly global phenomenon. At the time, there were two branded WWE programs, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown. The roster of programs has now doubled with the addition of “WWE Superstars” and WWE NXT. The company’s pay-per-view events have also become more innovative. Since 2000, with the inclusion of Hell in a Cell and Elimination Chamber, WWE’s pay-per-views have generated an average of approximately $100 million in revenue and more than $5 million buys annually.
WWE also continues to expand their presence in untapped overseas markets. During the summer, the company undertook several international tours, including an unprecedented show in Shanghai, China. Moving forward, WWE looks forward to showcasing more of their product in that region as well as other uncharted territories.
The company extended their reach further into feature films with WWE Studios. Since 2000, the studio has generated seven movies, with several more scheduled for upcoming release. The latest effort to unspool on the silver screen is Knucklehead, starring WWE SuperstarBig Show.
And lastly, WWE remains a pioneer in digital media. In 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, “WWE” remained in the top three of the most popular Yahoo! Search terms. Many of those searches were directed to WWE.com, the company’s official website. In the first quarter of 2010, WWE.com averaged 13.2 million monthly unique visitors worldwide, generated 413.4 million page views and provided more than 30.3 million monthly video streams.
Although WWE has greatly expanded its footprint both domestically and abroad to offer ever more dynamic forms of entertainment over the past decade, the company continues to leverage other avenues of growth. With innovative new technologies and exciting new Superstars yet to be discovered, WWE is eager to provide stock holders with even more reasons to look forward to the decade ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment