Enters world's top 400 rich person list
Vince McMahon, who debuts on the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.1 billion, has more in common with his superwealthy brethren than you might think.
On the surface, the 55-year-old chief executive of the World Wrestling Federation (nasdaq: WWFE) couldn't be more different from the button-down Wall Street financiers and thirty-something billionaire technogeeks who dominate the list. After all, McMahon delivers entertainment that's often violent and sexist. His characters look and sound like thugs in a terrible B-grade movie.
But make no mistake. His is a serious business, and McMahon is a serious businessman. Like many on the Forbes 400, he's an entrepreneur, a brilliant marketer and promoter (à la Steve Jobs), who correctly predicted (think Ted Turner's CNN) what teenage boys--a highly prized demographic--wanted in sports entertainment.
Even if you're not into wrestling, it's tough to miss McMahon's characters. One of the more popular WWF wrestlers, The Rock, appeared on a TV episode of Martha Stewart Living--they made a giant heart-shaped chocolate chip cookie--and he addressed this year's Republican National Convention.
If that's not crossover, we don't know what is.
The crossover may continue in February, when McMahon launches a football league called the XFL, expected to have far fewer rules than the NFL. The company scored a coup in a deal with NBC, a division of General Electric (nyse: GE), which owns 50% of the XFL. NBC will share costs and broadcast its games. XFL fans are expected to be older than that of the WWF, but with more disposable income.
Despite his similarities to more "traditional" billionaires on the list, McMahon differs from many on the Forbes 400 in one important respect: His company turns a profit.