WWE and the corporate that runs Ultimate Fighting Championship will mix to create a $21.4bn sports activities leisure corporate.
A brand new publicly traded corporate will likely be shaped that encompasses the UFC and WWE manufacturers, with Endeavor Group Holdings Inc – the present proprietor of the UFC – taking a 51% controlling pastime within the new corporate. Existing WWE shareholders will hang a 49% stake.
The corporations put the endeavor price of UFC at $12.1bn and WWE at $9.3bn.
The new industry will likely be led through Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel. Vince McMahon, govt chairman at WWE, will serve in the similar position on the new corporate.
The announcement comes after McMahon, the founder and majority shareholder of WWE, returned to the corporate in January and mentioned it might be up on the market.
Rumors swirled about who would most likely be interested by purchasing WWE, with chatter that specialize in corporations similar to Endeavor, Disney, Fox, Comcast, Amazon and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Industry professionals had seen WWE as an exquisite acquisition goal given its world achieve and constant fan base, which has a variety of demographics and earning.
The corporate held its marquee match, WrestleMania, over the weekend. Last yr, WWE booked earnings of $1.3bn.
The corporate could also be a social media powerhouse. It surpassed 16bn social video perspectives within the closing quarter of closing yr. It has just about 94m YouTube subscribers and has greater than 20 million fans on TikTok. Its feminine wrestlers include 5 out of the highest 15 most-followed feminine athletes on this planet throughout Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, led through Ronda Rousey with 36.1m fans.
WWE had greater than 7.5bn virtual and social media perspectives in January and February of this yr, up 15% from the similar time period a yr in the past.
Shares of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc, primarily based in Stamford, Connecticut, slumped 4% sooner than the outlet bell on Monday. Shares of Endeavor, primarily based in California, rose 3%.