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American Morning

Minding your Business: WWE Hits Rough Patch

Aired December 03, 2002 - 09:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: About seven minutes away from the opening bell, and the markets in the meantime, Andy Serwer is watching everything for us.
How goes it? Futures say what?

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR AT LARGE, "FORTUNE": Futures are down a bit this morning, Bill, after yesterday's mixed session. We'll be watching AOL closely. More and more news leaking out of the big presentation they're having right up the street here.

Well, basically they're saying that the revenue from the online business is going to fall off a cliff next year. Maybe not a big surprise, but still in pre-market trading...

HEMMER: Advertising, subscriptions...

SERWER: Yes, advertising. Subscription growth slowing, advertising going down. Same stuff we've been talking about for a while. Still the stock is down in pre-market trading. Cisco will also be very active this morning as well, because they're meeting with analysts.

HEMMER: I have to think of the '90s, though. I mean, AOL signed up 3 million people a year. At some point, that was going to reach a point where it just could not keep up that same pace.

SERWER: I mean, that is the thing. People talk about how troubled this business is. In terms of ad growth, yes, it's trouble, but we are talking about slowing subscription growth. We are not talking about subscription growth declining. But the thing is, down the road, what happens is people migrate to broadband, that is what we were talking about earlier this morning.

HEMMER: Different topic now, wrestling.

SERWER: Pro wrestling, another business in trouble. The WWE, this is a company that went public. Vince McMahon -- get him. This is a company that went public in 1999. It was red hot, but since then, Bill, lucky that's not you.

HEMMER: That was in the turnbuckle, wasn't it?

SERWER: OK. Since 1999, the stock has fallen from 25 bucks to under 9 bucks, and TV ratings are down 35 percent. They have got about a three share now. Basically what is going on, a lot of the characters are getting, how do we say it, long in the tooth? HEMMER: They develop those characters.

SERWER: Some of them having problems -- they are all out. It is a whole weird entertainment thing. Stone Cold Austin, he's out. Triple H, who could forget him? He's out for now. The Rock is doing other things, and Mankind, one of my favorite stars, an analyst said he has fallen on his head too many times. He apparently is out of the picture. There are accusations of stealing. There is a sexual harassment case, and they lost their trademark, WWF, to the World Wildlife Fund, the panda bear people. So they have got all of these things going on, and you talk to fans. They basically say the plots are getting too complicated. They can't follow it.

And Vince McMahon, the impresario behind the whole thing, says, We're going to come back, We're going to come back. But as you said...

HEMMER: Don't count him out, though.

SERWER: Don't count him out. And this has been around for a long time. I just think it got a little hyped up there at one point, and they have got to retool and bring this thing back.

HEMMER: Well, some day we'll bring back Ricky Steamboat and Hulk Hogan.

SERWER: George the Animal Steel.

HEMMER: George the Animal Steel. I remember him too.

SERWER: That is my man.

HEMMER: Good deal. See you, Mankind.

SERWER: See you soon. Mankind.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 3, 2002 - 09:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: About seven minutes away from the opening bell, and the markets in the meantime, Andy Serwer is watching everything for us.
How goes it? Futures say what?

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR AT LARGE, "FORTUNE": Futures are down a bit this morning, Bill, after yesterday's mixed session. We'll be watching AOL closely. More and more news leaking out of the big presentation they're having right up the street here.

Well, basically they're saying that the revenue from the online business is going to fall off a cliff next year. Maybe not a big surprise, but still in pre-market trading...

HEMMER: Advertising, subscriptions...

SERWER: Yes, advertising. Subscription growth slowing, advertising going down. Same stuff we've been talking about for a while. Still the stock is down in pre-market trading. Cisco will also be very active this morning as well, because they're meeting with analysts.

HEMMER: I have to think of the '90s, though. I mean, AOL signed up 3 million people a year. At some point, that was going to reach a point where it just could not keep up that same pace.

SERWER: I mean, that is the thing. People talk about how troubled this business is. In terms of ad growth, yes, it's trouble, but we are talking about slowing subscription growth. We are not talking about subscription growth declining. But the thing is, down the road, what happens is people migrate to broadband, that is what we were talking about earlier this morning.

HEMMER: Different topic now, wrestling.

SERWER: Pro wrestling, another business in trouble. The WWE, this is a company that went public. Vince McMahon -- get him. This is a company that went public in 1999. It was red hot, but since then, Bill, lucky that's not you.

HEMMER: That was in the turnbuckle, wasn't it?

SERWER: OK. Since 1999, the stock has fallen from 25 bucks to under 9 bucks, and TV ratings are down 35 percent. They have got about a three share now. Basically what is going on, a lot of the characters are getting, how do we say it, long in the tooth? HEMMER: They develop those characters.

SERWER: Some of them having problems -- they are all out. It is a whole weird entertainment thing. Stone Cold Austin, he's out. Triple H, who could forget him? He's out for now. The Rock is doing other things, and Mankind, one of my favorite stars, an analyst said he has fallen on his head too many times. He apparently is out of the picture. There are accusations of stealing. There is a sexual harassment case, and they lost their trademark, WWF, to the World Wildlife Fund, the panda bear people. So they have got all of these things going on, and you talk to fans. They basically say the plots are getting too complicated. They can't follow it.

And Vince McMahon, the impresario behind the whole thing, says, We're going to come back, We're going to come back. But as you said...

HEMMER: Don't count him out, though.

SERWER: Don't count him out. And this has been around for a long time. I just think it got a little hyped up there at one point, and they have got to retool and bring this thing back.

HEMMER: Well, some day we'll bring back Ricky Steamboat and Hulk Hogan.

SERWER: George the Animal Steel.

HEMMER: George the Animal Steel. I remember him too.

SERWER: That is my man.

HEMMER: Good deal. See you, Mankind.

SERWER: See you soon. Mankind.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com