WWE President Nick Khan Clarifies His “We’re Open For Business” Line
Earlier this month WWE President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan appeared on the Recode Media podcast with Peter Kafka. With continued revenue growth and cost cutting measures (such as releasing talent and slimming down live events) Khan was asked if WWE was looking to be sold in the next year.
"We're open for business on anything and everything, and even some of the business plans that we've announced recently, I think, are different or unique to what the company has traditionally done," Khan pointed out during his appearance. "So we're open for business. If somebody calls, we'll listen, but we're not active. We're not out in the marketplace trying to change that structure."
Khan has a new interview with Ariel Helwani dropping this Sunday and clarified what he meant about WWE being open for business — a line that Vince McMahon himself has often said.
"Number one, when I say 'We're open for business' that means if someone credible calls on anything — NFT, trading cards, international rights — we take the call," Khan said. "We're inherently salespeople, meaning we're not sort of like, 'No, we don't want to talk to this company because we think they're [this].' If you call and want to pitch us something and you're a credible company, we're going to hear the pitch. We're an entrepreneurial company that Vince [McMahon] and others built over the last 35 years or so.
"We always want to stay fresh and entrepreneurial in our minds when I say, 'We're open for business.' If somebody credible calls asking, 'Hey, are you guys for sale?' What's your offer? What are ya thinking? We're not trying to sell it, that's not our intent. There are no internal meetings about selling this company. The internal meetings are about growing it and the ability — that we think — we collectively have to tremendously grow what the value of the company is now."
Helwani followed up asking if anyone was calling about buying the WWE. Khan initially made a joke that he had his phone on "Do Not Disturb" for the interview, then said people are always checking in.
"Look, people call all the time about all different things, but we are not in active conversations about any of that."
You can check out the clip in the video below.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Ariel Helwani of BT Sport and give a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Nick Khan clarifies the 'open for business' line.
"If you call and pitch and are creditable, we'll hear the pitch."
"We're not trying to sell. There are no internal meetings about selling this company."
The full chat with @arielhelwani drops Sunday 👀 pic.twitter.com/T11k5f3YTN
— WWE on TNT Sports (@wweontnt) August 21, 2021