INVESTORS PUT OFF BY WWF'S `SMACKDOWN!'.Byline: Jennifer Allen Bridge News Forget the sponsors. Investors are the most important ones to drop the World Wrestling Federation, chased as much by uncertainties about WWF's stance on content as concerns that defecting sponsors won't be replaced. To put it in the vernacular ver·nac·u·lar n. 1. The standard native language of a country or locality. 2. a. The everyday language spoken by a people as distinguished from the literary language. See Synonyms at dialect. b. , no one likes to get potatoed from behind. WWF's flip-flop on the content issue this week has left shareholders wondering if they still own a company willing to push the programming envelope. Judging by Thursday's Smackdown! show, they don't. The usually extreme program was tame, particularly when compared with other programming on United Paramount Network, owned jointly by Viacom Inc and Chris-Craft Industries Chris-Craft Industries is a privately held American manufacturer of civilian powerboats based in Sarasota, Florida. The company was founded in the late 19th century by Christopher Columbus Smith and became famous for its mahogany hulled powerboats of the 1920s through the 1950s. , Inc. Outside of a lewd gesture by X-Pac, offered a couple of times early on, the show didn't come close to stepping over a line. Jim Byrne, WWF See Windows Workflow Foundation. senior vice president of marketing, said Thursday's show achieved a TV-PG rating, compared with its previous TV-14 rating. The company had aimed for the milder rating, reducing the amount of what Byrne called colorful language and sexuality, in response to sponsor defections, including Coca-Cola, in the past week. For now, WWF will leave content of its Monday night Raw is War show on cable's USA Network unchanged, meaning it will continue to earn its TV-14 rating. Saturday morning cable programs also will still get TV-PG ratings. That a softer Smackdown! still drew a large audience should help to appease ap·pease tr.v. ap·peased, ap·peas·ing, ap·peas·es 1. To bring peace, quiet, or calm to; soothe. 2. To satisfy or relieve: appease one's thirst. 3. sponsors but won't revive investor confidence in or enthusiasm for WWF shares. Investors are smarting from the whipsaw Whipsaw A condition where an investor's security transaction is quickly followed by an opposite reaction. Sometimes referred to as "being whipped". Notes: An example would be buying a stock and, shortly after, the stock falls substantially in price. turnabout in WWF's sponsor stance, not to mention a stock-price plunge that continued Friday. WWF closed Friday at $17.125, down $1.375, or 7 percent, after trading as low as $16.25 - the lowest point the company has reached since first trading to the public at $30.50 in mid-October. WWF shares priced at $17, so IPO (Initial Public Offering) The first time a company offers shares of stock to the public. While not a computer term per se, many founders, employees and insiders of computer companies have found this acronym more exciting than any tech term they ever heard. buyers now have little to show for their initial investments. WWF first issued a nose-thumbing response to Coca-Cola's sponsorship withdrawal the day before Thanksgiving. Chairman Vince McMahon  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. , in true WWF fashion, attacked, saying the defection ``could be the worst marketing decision since the fiasco introduction of New Coke New Coke was the unofficial name of the sweeter formulation introduced in 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace its flagship soft drink, Coca-Cola or Coke. .'' But just a few days later, WWF officials changed their minds, telling certain reporters the WWF would, after all, tone down Smackdown!, one of its more extreme programs and the only one aired on broadcast television instead of cable. |
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