The deal was announced before market open this morning.
As reported, Endeavor CEOAri Emanuelbecomes TKOs chief executive.
McMahon is executive chairman.
Seth Rollins & Sean StricklandGetty
Endeavor president and COO Mark Shapiro has the same role at TKO.
Dana Whiteremains CEO of UFC, Lawrence Epstein COO.
Nick Khan is president of WWE (Raw,SmackDown).
Other execs include Endeavor chief legal officer Seth Krauss, who heads legal at the new company.
UFC CFO Andrew Schleimer is chief financial officer.
Growth will be powered by Endeavor and the flywheel that we have.
Versus MMA, which indexes extremely diverse, very international, and kind of college age.
WWE has 1.2 billion followers on social media.
UFC has 700 million.
Rights renewals have been of major interest to Wall Street.
UFCs deal with ESPN expires in 2025.
WWEs exclusive U.S. streaming deal with Peacock ends in 2026.
Theres been speculation of rolling the leagues together but that wont happen domestically, at least for a while.
Internationally, there is a lot of opportunity for that.
The combined company plans to expand its content offerings.
Endeavor is also hoping the new company will give its stock a bump.
Certainly part of the strategy is… bringing more clarity and transparency to the assets, he said.
TKO starts trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TKO opening bell ringing below.
