Usually, when you talk about brands inside the same family doing collaborations and crossovers, it’s lame. When those brands happen to be Ducati and Lamborghini, it ceases to be lame and starts being awesome.
Enter the Ducati Streetfighter V4 Lamborghini. It’s a very limited edition of the V4 S (which is already kind of a batshit nuts motorcycle) that takes a bunch of styling cues from the also bananas Lamborghini Huracan STO. It adds some other spicier bits to the Streetfighter formula for something truly desirable and over-the-top.
The Streetfighter V4 S is based on the Panigale V4 S, which means it’s packing a 200-plus horsepower 1,103-cc V4 engine, Ohlins electronic suspension and enough safety electronics to keep even the most ham-fisted rider from launching themselves into a low-Earth orbit. The Lamborghini edition adds a new Akrapovic underbody muffler, Lamborghini-like wheels and reworked body panels that draw inspiration from the Huracan STO’s hyper-aggressive styling.
The wheels even look like the STO’s wheels.Photo: Ducati
The best part about this special Streetfighter is that it’s coming from the factory with a dry clutch. If you’re not a Ducati fan, you may wonder why that’s awesome. Basically, it makes the bike objectively worse to ride on the street, because it’s not as happy to slip, but makes the most insane, catastrophic sound. It’s like Satan’s own tambourine or a washing machine full of car accidents. It’s glorious.
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This isn’t the first time this gruesome twosome of Italian performance vehicle manufacturers has teamed up, either. It’s definitely the coolest, though. The previous collab was on the 1260 Diavel Lamborghini, which drew inspiration from the Sian.
Ducati will be making just 630 examples for the public, with a further 63 examples for current Huracan STO owners that will match their cars. If you want one of these things, be prepared to pay exotic Italian prices for them. The “standard” Streetfighter V4 Lamborghini will retail for a wallet-scorching $68,000 and if you’re invited to buy one of the 63 specials, expect to pay $83,000.
With so much of our culture hyper-focused on what a person eats (and what a person weighs), it can be hard to define what “overeating” actually is—and when that overeating becomes a bigger problem. Do you simply have a big appetite, or are you actually struggling with an eating disorder? Here’s how to decipher the differences between regular overeating and the more serious binge eating disorder.
What is binge eating disorder?
According to the National Eating Disorders Association, binge eating disorder is severe and can be life-threatening but is also treatable. It’s characterized by recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food. This is typically done very quickly and to the point of feeling uncomfortable. Other characteristics of BED include a feeling of loss of control during the binge and shame or guilt after it. Notably, bulimia involves unhealthy compensatory measures like purging after a binge, while BED does not.
BED is recognized in the DSM-5, but its addition to the diagnostic manual as its own disorder is relatively recent. Prior to 2013, it was considered a subtype of OSFED, or “other specified feeding and eating disorder.” Now, it’s the most common eating disorder in America.
Diagnostic criteria include the following:
Eating within a discrete time period an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most people would eat in that time period under similar circumstances
A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode
Eating more rapidly than normal, eating until feeling uncomfortably full, eating large amounts when not hungry, eating alone because of embarrassment over how much is being consumed, and feeling disgusted, depressed, or guilty afterward (note that three of these must be present for a diagnosis)
Marked distress regarding bingeing
The binge occurs, on average, at least once a week for three months
The binge eating is not associated with inappropriate compensatory behaviors like purging and does not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa
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How is binge eating disorder different from overeating?
According to Healthline, BED is a medical condition, and overeating is not. BED is also associated with other psychological symptoms like depression and anxiety.
Another primary difference between the two is the feeling of distress or shame that comes with BED and its related behaviors. If you occasionally overeat, but you don’t feel distressed or guilty about it afterward, it’s unlikely you have BED. Next time you overeat, take note of what is going on. If you are doing it alone to hide your behavior, feeling out of control when it’s happening, and feeling ashamed afterward, you could have BED and should consider talking to a mental health professional.
(Here is how to find a good therapist even if you don’t have insurance, and here are warning signs your child may have BED.)
What can be done about BED?
If you end up with a diagnosis, here’s what you need to know: First, getting the diagnosis is a good thing, as BED can cause health complications like asthma, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure in addition to mental health problems like depression and anxiety.
Second, there are treatments available. Typically, people with BED will be treated with some kind of psychotherapy or counseling and there will be a medical or nutritional component, too. To figure out what kind of treatment you need, your mental health professional will consider emotional factors and the severity of your BED. Therapy can help address the underlying causes of the disorder, and medicine can help regulate your eating habits.
California’s Legislature passed a bill Monday to create a government panel that would set wages for an estimated half-million fast food workers in the state, a first-in-the-U.S. approach to workplace regulation that labor union backers hope will spread nationally.
The bill, known as the Fast Act, would establish a panel with members appointed by the governor and legislative leaders composed of workers, union representatives, employers and business advocates. They would set hourly wages of up to $22 for fast food workers starting next year and can increase them annually by the same rate as the consumer-price index, up to a maximum of 3.5%.
A previous version of the bill passed by the state Assembly in January also allowed the council to oversee workplace conditions such as scheduling and made restaurant chains joint employers of their franchise’s employers, potentially opening them to liability for labor violations.
Representatives for companies including
McDonald’s Corp.
,
Yum Brands Inc.
and
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.
succeeded in having those provisions removed in the state Senate via amendments over the past week, though they still oppose the bill.
“This is the biggest lobbying fight that the franchise sector has ever been in,” said
Matthew Haller,
president of the International Franchise Association, a trade group whose members own many fast food restaurants.
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A University of California, Riverside School of Business study commissioned by the franchisee association found that setting minimum wages between $22 and $43 would generate a 60% increase in labor costs and raise fast-food prices by about 20%.
California’s current minimum wage is $15 and is set to increase by 50 cents on Jan. 1.
The final version of the Fast Act passed both houses of the Democratic-controlled state Legislature on Monday. In both the Assembly and the Senate, all of the “yes” votes came from Democrats and every Republican who voted opposed the bill.
Democratic Gov.
Gavin Newsom
now has until Sept. 30 to decide whether to sign or veto the bill.
Mr. Newsom hasn’t taken a public stance on the current version of the bill, but his Department of Finance opposed the original version.
Labor unions backing the measure have long struggled to organize fast food workers, in part because the industry’s franchise model means there are so many different employers.
California lawmakers first floated the bill last year, with proponents arguing that tighter regulations were needed to protect fast food workers, who are overwhelmingly Black or Latino and who they say experience unpaid overtime and other labor violations.
The average U.S. home earned more last year than the average American worker. Prices for homes, groceries and gas are rising faster than Americans’ wages and that may be why sentiment and confidence have been so low recently. WSJ’s Dion Rabouin explains. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Despite the recent changes, proponents said the bill is still a significant step forward. Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a former Democratic legislator who introduced the bill when she was in the Assembly, said it moves California closer to a labor model used in Europe where unions negotiate for wages and work conditions in an entire sector, rather than company-by-company.
“It’s still a big bold idea. And just the notion of giving workers a voice at the table will be fundamentally different for those workers,” said Ms. Gonzalez Fletcher, who now leads the California Labor Federation, the state’s largest union umbrella group.
The recent amendments call for the council to shut down in 2028 unless it is renewed, though inflation-adjusted wage increases for workers would continue.
The bill covers fast food restaurants that are part of a chain, that have limited or no table service and where customers order their food and pay before eating. The chain must have 100 or more locations nationally, up from 30 in a previous bill version.
California accounts for around 14% of total U.S. restaurant sales, and policy in the state tends to affect the rest of the sector, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. analysts wrote in a client note earlier this month.
Service Employees International Union President
Mary Kay Henry
said she hoped the bill would be a catalyst for similar movements across the country.
Investors have begun to ask about the act’s potential implications for restaurant chains at a time when companies are struggling with high food and labor costs, Wall Street analysts said.
“Obviously, we think it’s problematic on many, many fronts,” said
Paul Brown,
chief executive of Dunkin’ and Arby’s owner Inspire Brands Inc., in an interview. “I think it’s actually trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”
have together spent more than $1 million to lobby lawmakers between 2021 and June 30 of this year, primarily on the Fast Act, state records show.
The International Franchise Association, which represents some 1,200 franchise brands, has spent $615,000 lobbying against the Fast Act and other legislation in that time.
Disclosures for lobbying spending since July 1 aren’t due until later this year, but industry advocacy against the bill has ramped up considerably during that time, people familiar with the effort said.
Labor unions have collectively spent more than $5 million to lobby the Legislature since the beginning of 2021, mostly on the Fast Act, state records show.
McDonald’s has encouraged franchisees around the country to email California lawmakers urging them to vote against the bill, according to a message viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
State Sen. Shannon Grove, a Republican, said on the Senate floor Monday that McDonald’s representatives told her that if the Fast Act becomes law, the company could stop expanding in California or leave altogether.
“Could we really survive without the golden arches?” Ms. Grove said.
Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com and Christine Mai-Duc at christine.maiduc@wsj.com
Elon Musk is either getting into international soccer or else may have scored an own goal and teed up more trouble from the SEC.
In a tweet late Tuesday, the Tesla Inc. TSLA chief executive said: “Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome,” referring to the iconic English soccer club that may be up for sale.
It was unclear if Musk was…
Elon Musk is either getting into international soccer or else may have scored an own goal and teed up more trouble from the SEC.
In a tweet late Tuesday, the Tesla Inc.
TSLA
chief executive said: “Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome,” referring to the iconic English soccer club that may be up for sale.
It was unclear if Musk was serious, as he’s well-known for tweeting jokes and frivolous statements.
Neither Manchester United nor the SEC immediately replied to requests for further information.
But if it was a joke, it may not be funny to the Securities and Exchange Commission, since Manchester United
MANU
is a publicly traded company. Musk’s tweet came at 8:01 p.m., just after the end of after-hours trading, so Man U’s stock was unaffected.
Musk is no stranger to tweets coming back to bite him. His 2018 tweet that he had “funding secured” to consider taking Tesla private at $420 a share became the subject of regulatory action by the SEC, ultimately resulting in $20 million fines each against Musk and Tesla.
Musk has sparred with the SEC on a number of other occasions over the years. He’s also embroiled in a bitter legal battle as he’s trying to pull out of a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter Inc.
TWTR
.
On the other hand, if the tweet is true, it would be a seismic deal for one of the most valuable sports brands on the planet. Manchester United’s current owners, the Glazer family, have been under pressure to sell the team after years of underperformance, mismanagement and a revolt by some fans. The team is currently in last place in the English Premier League, after their second straight loss to start the season, an embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Brentford on Saturday.
Last week, reports said British businessman Michael Knighton planned a formal bid to buy the team. The club has an estimated value of $4.6 billion, according to Forbes.
That price tag would be doable for Musk, who is the world’s wealthiest individual, with a fortune estimated around $267 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Manchester United went public in a 2012 IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares are down 10% year to date, in line with the S&P 500’s
Billionaire investor George Soros’s investment fund has bought stakes in Tesla Inc. and Ford Motor Co. and added to existing stakes in EV makers Lucid Group Inc. and Nio Inc., according to a filing late Friday.
The fund acquired 29.5 million shares of Ford
F,
+2.21%
in the reporting period ended in June, the filing showed. It snapped up nearly 30,000 Tesla shares
TSLA,
+4.68%
in a new position as well.
New positions for the fund also included bets on Twitter Inc.
TWTR,
+0.73%,
the social-media company in the middle of a dispute with Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk over their soured deal.
The Soros fund offloaded some of its holdings in Rivian Automotive Inc.
RIVN,
-0.13%,
however, ending the reporting period with slightly less than 18 million shares, down from a previous holding of around 20 million shares.
See also: Rivian loses nearly $2 billion in second quarter as expenses mount
New stakes for the fund also included Las Vegas Sands Corp.
LVS,
+2.60%
and Uber Technologies Inc.
UBER,
+0.71%.
The fund sold all of its shares of Bank of America Corp.
BAC,
+1.09%
and Citigroup Inc.
C,
+0.70%
as well as gaming company Take Two Interactive Inc.
TTWO,
+2.05%,
among others.
reported a better-than-expected 26% jump in revenue Wednesday, driven by record results at its theme parks division and the addition of more new subscribers than projected to its flagship streaming video platform Disney+.
Disney’s results highlight the complex dynamics of the competitive streaming landscape. The company lowered its forecast for future Disney+ growth, raised the prices on its streaming offerings, outlined plans for a new ad-supported tier of Disney+ and said nearly all of the streaming service’s growth is coming from overseas.
The company’s earnings this quarter reflect the difficulties it and rivals, such as
Netflix Inc.,
face in attracting new customers domestically, where streaming options abound and many households use one or more services. Plus, in an increasingly difficult economic environment, some households are rethinking spending on in-home entertainment, industry analysts have said.
Chief Executive
Bob Chapek
said he didn’t think the price changes would result in any meaningful loss of streaming customers. “We believe that we’ve got plenty of price value room left to go,” Mr. Chapek said.
On the company’s call with analysts, Chief Financial Officer
Christine McCarthy
ratcheted down its forecast for Disney+, saying it now expects a total range of 215 million to 245 million subscribers by September 2024, in part because it lost the right to air popular Indian cricket competitions.
A few months ago, Mr. Chapek said the company’s previous target of 230 million to 260 million, set by the company in December 2020, was “very achievable.”
In the three-month period ended July 2, Disney+ gained 14.4 million new subscribers, bringing its global total to 152.1 million subscribers. Analysts were expecting 10 million additions, according to
FactSet.
Wednesday’s report brings Disney’s total subscriber base to 221.1 million customers across all of its streaming offerings, including ESPN+ and Hulu, surpassing Netflix, its chief streaming rival, in total customers. Netflix last month reported it had 220.67 million subscribers.
Disney shares rose about 7% in after-hours trading to $120.11.
Overall for the third quarter, the world’s largest entertainment company reported profits of $1.41 billion, or 77 cents a share, up from $918 million, or 50 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue increased to $21.5 billion, above the average analyst estimate of $20.99 billion on FactSet.
Since 1967, the Florida land housing Disney’s theme parks has been governed by the company, allowing it to manage Walt Disney World with little red tape. WSJ’s Robbie Whelan explains the special tax district that a Florida bill would eliminate. Photo: AP
Sales at the parks, experiences and products division—which includes Disneyland, Walt Disney World and four resorts in Europe and Asia and has historically been Disney’s most profitable segment—reached $7.4 billion for the quarter, a record, and was up 70% from a year earlier. The division posted profits of $2.2 billion for the quarter, up from $356 million a year ago.
“Demand has not abated” at the parks, Ms. McCarthy said. Since reopening in 2021 after pandemic-related closures, Disney’s theme parks haven’t been running at full capacity, but a new online reservations system and ride-reservation apps have helped the company better respond to demand and generate more revenue per visitor.
Over the past year, CEO Bob Chapek and other top Disney executives have signaled an increased focus on international markets for growing its streaming business.
Photo:
Laurent Viteur/Getty Images
Ms. McCarthy said that if economic conditions worsen, Disney could tweak the reservation system to allow more visitors in on certain days, but as of now, demand is outstripping available spots.
Disney’s direct-to-consumer segment, which includes video streaming, lost $1.1 billion in the third quarter, widening from a loss of $293 million a year earlier. Since Disney+ launched in late 2019, the segment has lost more than $7 billion. On Wednesday, Ms. McCarthy said Disney’s estimate for overall spending on content for fiscal 2022 had fallen slightly, from $32 billion to $30 billion.
Disney gave a launch date of Dec. 8 and outlined pricing information for its previously announced ad-supported tier of Disney+ in the U.S., a new product designed to expand the reach of the company’s streaming business.
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The price of the ad-free stand-alone Disney+ service will rise from its current level of $7.99 a month in the U.S. to $10.99 a month, or $109.99 a year. The new, basic Disney+ service with ads will cost $7.99 a month.
The premium Disney streaming bundle, which includes ad-free versions of Disney+ and Hulu, as well as a version of sports-focused ESPN+ with ads, will remain at its current price of $19.99 a month in the U.S., while a bundle that includes all three services, but with ads on Hulu, will rise in price by $1 a month, to $14.99.
Mr. Chapek defended the price increases, saying that when it was launched, Disney+ was among the most competitively-priced streaming offerings and that the company has added more and higher-quality content to the service.
“I think it’s easy to say that we’re the best value in streaming,” Mr. Chapek said Wednesday.
Over the past year, Mr. Chapek and other top Disney executives have signaled an increased focus on international markets for growing its streaming business. Disney is spending heavily to produce hundreds of local-language television shows in countries such as India, and over the summer, Disney+ launched in 53 new countries and territories, mainly concentrated in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Pricing for a Disney+ subscription in many of these new markets runs below the $7.99 a month that American customers pay. Still, Disney+’s average monthly revenue per paid subscriber—a key metric in streaming businesses—stood at $6.27 in North America, compared with $6.29 internationally, excluding Asia’s more inexpensive Disney+ Hotstar service.
Disney+ Hotstar, the service used by Disney’s 58.4 million subscribers in India, produces just $1.20 a month per user. Some analysts and former Disney executives predict that losing cricket streaming rights will result in millions of canceled accounts over the next year.
The flagging growth of North American Disney+ subscriptions is likely the result of a glut of content being released by in movie theaters and on a proliferation of streaming services, as well as fatigue the Star Wars and Marvel superhero movie franchises, said Francisco Olivera, a Disney shareholder who manages a small family fund based in Puerto Rico that has about 15% of its holdings in Disney stock.
The addition of an ad-supported tier, higher prices and possible further integration of the Hulu service in the future, could help reduce subscriber churn and make it easier to achieve profitability, he said.
“It’s a healthier market right now with the parks recovering, so they’re really flexing their muscles on pricing,” Mr. Olivera said.
—Sarah Krouse contributed to this article.
Write to Robbie Whelan at Robbie.Whelan@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications Disney+ launched in 53 new countries and territories over the summer. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it launched in 54. (Corrected on Aug. 10)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch received its second wave of Booster Course Pass DLC today, which adds eight new courses and finally fixes an old one. Let’s just say Coconut Mall’s Shy Guys aren’t so shy anymore, and if you get too close you will get merc’d.
The first set of new courses arrived back in March, one of the most anticipated among them being Coconut Mall, a breezy classic from Mario Kart Wii remastered for the modern game. But there was just one problem: the Miis that ram players near the end of the course were replaced with Shy Guys. Adding insult to injury was the fact that the Shy Guys no longer drove. Their cars remained stationary. Mario Kart fans were disturbed.
Well, in an extremely rare turn of events, Nintendo listened to fans and restored Coconut Mall’s death alley to some of its former glory. The Miis are still Shy Guys, but they now ratchet slightly forward and start spinning around in a spiral of vehicular carnage.
Today’s DLC also adds New York Minute (Tour), Mario Circuit 3 (SNES), Kalimari Desert (N64), Waluigi Pinball (DS), Sydney Sprint (Tour), Snow Land (GBA), Mushroom Gorge (Wii), and Sky-High Sundae, an entirely new level exclusive to MK8. Waluigi Pinball is a cult-favorite deep-cut. Mushroom Gorge returns with its infamous Gap Cut intact. Sky-High Sundae is a visual feast. But Coconut Mall’s Shy Guys are still stealing the show.
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Today’s update isn’t just a content drop, though. Nintendo is also still tweaking the underlying game. With the arrival of March’s DLC, it patched Item Boxes to make them regenerate faster after players pick them up. Today it did so again. The developers also increased the number of time trial ghosts players can download from 16 to 32 and adjusted how far vehicles get thrown based on their weight.
It’s far and away the most Nintendo has ever updated a game five years into its lifecycle, let alone one that was originally released on the Wii U back in 2014. While some analysts claim Mario Kart 9 is already in the works, there are still another 24 courses coming to MK8 through the end of 2023. No doubt by that point the Shy Guys will be tearing up more than just Coconut Mall and the Item Boxes will regenerate faster than Nintendo’s lawyers can send a DMCA notice.
U.S. stocks rose Wednesday as investors considered another wave of corporate earnings reports and after a key reading on the services sector hit a three-month high.
The S&P 500 rose 1.1%, recouping losses after it fell Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.9%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.8%.
Stocks had come under renewed pressure in recent days from geopolitical tensions, as U.S. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi
met with Taiwan’s president despite warnings from China. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve officials said the central bank is likely to continue raising interest rates at coming meetings, dampening hopes in markets that slowing economic growth could mean a change in policy.
But some better-than-expected earnings reports amid low liquidity in August are lifting sentiment, investors say.
“Markets are taking a bit of a breather to assess what’s going on globally. There is still a lot of inflation, central banks are keeping that hawkish rhetoric and we get some geopolitics on top of that,” said Olivier Marciot, global macro portfolio manager at Unigestion. But earnings have been pretty good, in terms of beating expectations, he added.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.805% from 2.740% Tuesday. Weak economic data have weighed on yields in recent days, according to Michael Hewson, markets analyst at CMC Markets. There are “raised concerns that the U.S. economy could well be slowing sharply,” he said.
There have been concerns about the pace of the economy, and even whether a new recession is coming, but the U.S. services sector continued to expand in July, according to a report from the Institute for Supply Management. The ISM’s index of conditions for businesses like restaurants, hotels and retailers hit a three-month high in July.
The broader problem for investors is that whether or not the economy is technically in recession, inflation and the pressure it puts on the Fed to raise rates is resulting in an environment for investors that is fundamentally different from anything they have seen over the past several decades, said Eaton Vance portfolio manager Aaron Dunn. That won’t end soon, he said.
There has been a bounce back recently in some of the more beaten-up stocks, he said, but those hoping the growth trade returns may be disappointed. “Equities returns are going to be a grind.”
In corporate news,
PayPal
shares jumped 10% after hedge fund Elliott Management confirmed it has a $2 billion stake in the payments company. Starbucks rose 2.7% after it said demand is still strong and raising prices partially offset higher labor costs.
Vaccine maker
Moderna
rose 16% after it posted earnings above analysts’ estimates and said it would begin a new $3 billion share repurchase program.
Airbnb
declined 4.7% after it said it swung back to profit but its outlook disappointed investors. Online dating group
Match
tumbled 17% after posting results that missed estimates and said the CEO of Tinder is leaving the firm.
Chip maker
Advanced Micro Devices
fell 3% after it reported a drop in profit and issued guidance for the current period that came below Wall Street’s expectations.
Clorox,
MGM Resorts,
and insurers
MetLife
and
Allstate
are scheduled to report earnings after markets close.
Oil prices fell after an OPEC+ meeting where a committee suggested a smaller-than-expected production increase, according to delegates. U.S. crude fell 2.5% to $92.10.
Traders worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
Photo:
ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS
Overseas, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 ticked up 0.4%. British-listed cybersecurity firm
Avast
soared 43% after a U.K. regulator said it has provisionally cleared
NortonLifeLock’s
$7.3 billion acquisition of the company. French
bank Société Générale
rose 2.9% after reporting a narrower loss than analysts expected, despite its exit from Russia.
In Asia, major benchmarks were mixed. The Shanghai Composite Index ticked down 0.7%, extending losses after it closed down 2.3% on Tuesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.4% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.5%.
Write to Anna Hirtenstein at anna.hirtenstein@wsj.com
Vince McMahon, the king of U.S. wrestling, retired as chief executive officer and chairman of
World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.,
WWE 0.62%
following disclosures by The Wall Street Journal of multiple payouts to women who had alleged sexual misconduct and infidelity.
In a news release, the 76-year-old executive said his daughter, Stephanie McMahon, and the company’s current president, Nick Khan, will take over as co-CEOs. Ms. McMahon will serve as chairwoman.
“As the majority shareholder, I will continue to support WWE in any way I can,” Mr. McMahon said in a statement.
Stephanie McMahon will serve as chairwoman and co-CEO of WWE following her father’s retirement.
Photo:
Lauren Justice/Bloomberg News
Mr. McMahon didn’t respond to requests for comment, The company has said it is cooperating with the board investigation. Mr. McMahon won’t retain any role in the company’s creative content, according to a person familiar with the matter.
WWE describes Mr. McMahon as critical to the success of the company, which runs the world’s most famous wrestling business and reported record revenue of $1.1 billion last year. WWE said in regulatory filings that losing Mr. McMahon would put its entire business at risk.
Addressing the crowd at the start of WWE’s “Friday Night SmackDown” event in Boston, Ms. McMahon noted her father’s retirement and led the crowd in a chant of “Thank you, Vince.” Appearing emotional, Ms. McMahon mouthed “I love you, Dad,” into the camera.
Mr. McMahon temporarily stepped aside as chairman and CEO in June, when the company’s board of directors announced it would investigate allegations of misconduct against both Mr. McMahon and another executive, John Laurinaitis.
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Mr. Laurinaitis didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The announcement followed a report in the Journal that Mr. McMahon had agreed to pay a secret $3 million settlement to a former employee with whom he had allegedly had a sexual affair.
The Journal later reported that Mr. McMahon had agreed to pay more than $12 million in hush money settlements over the previous 16 years to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.
Those payments went to four women, including a former wrestler to whom McMahon agreed to pay $7.5 million in 2018 after she alleged he had coerced her into performing oral sex.
World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon during the WWE ‘Monday Night Raw’ show in Las Vegas in 2009.
Photo:
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The woman alleged Mr. McMahon demoted her and ultimately declined to renew her contract in 2005 after she refused further sexual advances, according to people familiar with the matter. The wrestler and her lawyer approached Mr. McMahon in 2018 and negotiated the payment in return for her silence, the people said.
In another deal, a WWE contractor presented the company with unsolicited nude photos of Mr. McMahon she reported receiving from him and alleged that he had sexually harassed her on the job, according to people familiar with the woman’s 2008 nondisclosure agreement. Mr. McMahon agreed to pay her roughly $1 million, these people said.
And in a 2006 agreement, a former manager who had worked 10 years for Mr. McMahon before he allegedly initiated a sexual relationship with her was paid $1 million to keep quiet about it, according to people familiar with the deal.
In his statement, Mr. McMahon said it had been a “privilege to help WWE bring you joy, inspire you, thrill you, surprise you, and always entertain you.”
WWE in June confirmed details of the Journal investigation and said at the time that a special committee of the board “is conducting an investigation into alleged misconduct” by Messrs. McMahon and Laurinaitis, head of WWE talent relations.
The Stamford, Conn.-based company appointed Ms. McMahon interim CEO in the wake of the investigation. She stepped away from her role as WWE’s chief brand officer in May, writing in a LinkedIn post that she was “taking this time to focus on my family” but that she planned to return.
The 12-member board includes several WWE executives and members of the McMahon family, including Mr. McMahon; Ms. McMahon; her husband,
Paul Levesque,
better known as the wrestler Triple H; and Mr. Khan. Man Jit Singh, a former Sony Pictures Home Entertainment executive, is the lead independent director and is running the inquiry, the Journal reported.
The company on Friday also announced that Mr. Levesque will resume his position as EVP, talent relations.
Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com, Joe Palazzolo at joe.palazzolo@wsj.com and Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com
In case you’ve never seen our coverage of the event before, Yeticon isn’t like most other cosplay shows. Instead of taking place in a convention centre in a big American city, it’s held at the Blue Mountain Resort in Ontario, Canada, which means our gallery is swapping hotel carpet backdrops for the beautiful Canadian countryside.
With a resort village, surrounding nature walks, a mountain coaster and swimming pools, it looks like one hell of a party, but for those of us too far away to have attended, we have the next best thing: a video and gallery of YetiCon shot by Mineralblu.
As usual, you’ll find each cosplayer’s credits and character/series information watermarked on the image below, and you can check out more of Mineralblu’s amazing work from other shows here.
THIS IS YETICON 2022 COMIC CON ANIME EXPO BEST SWIMSUIT COSPLAY MUSIC VIDEO TORONTO CANADA FAN EXPO
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Our Favorite Photos From YetiCon, Canada’s Mountain Cosplay Party
YetiCon, a show held every year in Canada’s Blue Mountains, is a cosplay con with a big focus on adventure stuff, ranging from toboggan rides to…drinking by the pool.
Canadian Cosplay Show Knows How To Party
YetiCon is a cosplay show that’s held every year in the Blue Mountains NW of Toronto. In addition to being a cosplay con, it’s also one hell of a cosplay party, with attendees booking themselves in for a weekend of pool parties and adventure sports.
