WWE, Investors Win Approval Of $39 Million Settlement Over Saudi Arabia Media Rights

WWE and its investors have reached an agreement of $39 million concerning the company’s media rights deal with Saudi Arabia. WWE had a huge class-action lawsuit filed against them in March 2020 when investors believed that the promotion misled them when it came to their dealings with KSA.

Bloomberg Law is reporting an agreement was agree late last Thursday when Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York Federal Court gave his approval on the deal.

Check out the report below.

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and investors who say it misled them about problems with its business ties to Saudi Arabia secured final approval for their $39 million settlement in federal court in New York.

The cash deal represents about 18.2% of estimated classwide damages, the investors told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York when they sought preliminary approval last year. Judge Jed S. Rakoff gave his final sign off to the settlement in an order docketed Thursday.

The professional wrestling group’s investors in 2020 accused WWE of misleading them about the status of media rights deals in Saudi Arabia. Rakoff rejected WWE’s bid to dismiss the suit later that year and preliminarily approved the settlement in March.

The settlement class consists of everyone who acquired WWE common stock from Feb. 7, 2019, through Feb. 5, 2020, and lost money as a result, with exceptions for those with other close ties to the company, Rakoff’s order said. There weren’t any objections to the settlement.

Lead counsel Labaton Sucharow LLP will get $7.02 million—18% of the settlement fund—in attorneys’ fees, Rakoff said in a separate order docketed Thursday. The firm will also get more than $468,000 as reimbursement for litigation expenses.

The pension fund representing the investors as lead plaintiff—Firefighters’ Pension System of the City of Kansas City, Missouri Trust—will get more than $6,200 as reimbursement of its reasonable costs and expenses, Rakoff said.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Day Pitney LLP represented WWE, which didn’t admit any fault.

The case is City of Warren Police & Fire Ret. Sys. v. World Wrestling Entm’t Inc., S.D.N.Y., No. 1:20-cv-02031, orders docketed 7/1/21.

If you’d like to have some further perusal regarding the settlement visit the following links below:

Decision: Final Settlement Approval Order
Docket: S.D.N.Y. Docket