Vince McMahon
By Mike Mooneyham
July 1, 2001
World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc.’s disastrous XFL venture forced a fourth-quarter loss of $20.4 million and cut full-year profits in 2001 to about a third of the previous year’s earnings.
The WWF, which took an after-tax charge of $36.2 million on the football league’s failure, reported a loss of $20.4 million, or 28 cents per share, for the quarter ended April 30. That compares with pro forma profit of $9.4 million, or 14 cents per share, for the same quarter a year ago.
“We rolled the dice on XFL and it didn’t work out quite as we expected it would,” said WWF spokesman Judd Everhart.
The XFL, a joint venture with NBC, folded after one season in which television viewership plummeted steadily.
For the full fiscal year, WWF reported a profit of about $16 million, or 22 cents per share. That’s roughly 36 percent of pro forma earnings in 2000, which totaled $44.6 million, or 71 cents per share. Fourth-quarter revenues were $131 million, up 13 percent from $116 million for the same quarter a year ago. Revenue for the full year was $456 million, up from $379 million for the prior fiscal year.
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