According to the latest information, World Wrestling Entertainment, the world’s largest professional wrestling company, is in advanced talks with the parent company of UFC, the Endeavor Group which Ari Emmanuel owns. The information regarding the new deal was not given out officially by either of the companies but was revealed by sources who were familiar with the subject.
According to the information shared by these sources, the details of the deal between the two companies will be made public most probably on Monday. They also added that both UFC and WWE are expected to form a new publicly traded company as part of the new agreement between the two companies. The sources refused to be named, taking the confidential nature of the subject into consideration.
As per the terms of the new deal, the Endeavor Group is expected to have 51% ownership in the company while the remaining 49% of the company will remain with the shareholders of WWE. The deal is also said to raise the enterprise value of WWE to around $9.3 billion in the market.
Currently, Vince McMahon serves as the executive chairman and Nick Khan serves as the CEO of WWE. After the deal, there is expected to be a change in the positions, and the current CEO of Endeavor Group, Ari Emmanuel is expected to take up the role of CEO for the new company too.
The current executive chairman of WWE, Vince McMahon is expected to serve as the executive chairman of the new company and the president of the Endeavor Group. Mark Shapiro will be serving in his current position in the new;y7 formed company too. As for the current CEO of WWE, Nick Khan, he is expected to be the president of the new wrestling business while Dana White will be the president of UFC.
The details regarding the new position changes at the company have also not been officially declared. The timing of the new deal with Endeavor Group has surfaced during the same weekend as WWE is hosting their flagship event WrestleMania.
The event is currently underway in California. The company had been trying to find a potential buyer for the past few months and sources say that it was to overlook the selling process that McMahon returned to the company as the executive chairman. The shares of the company had been doing well in the market recently and are said to be around 33% more up. The rise in shares has given the company a total value that is estimated to be more than around $6.79 billion.
WWE had beekeeping the status of a family-owned business for quite some time. For decades, the company had been managed by people from the same family. Before Vince McMahon, the company was owned by his father and it was from his father that Vionce bought the company in 1982.
After the company became under the ownership of Vince, there was a sudden growth in fame and popularity of the company. WWE became a global phenomenon and gave birth to some of the biggest names in the history of the company like Dwayne ‘The Rock Johnson, John Cena, and Dave Bautista.
Vince McMahon served at the company for years and he retired from WWE for good earlier following a series of accusations against him regarding hush payments to different women for his inappropriate behavior. The news revealed that McMahon spent around a million to pay different women so that they wouldn’t speak up about his misconduct and alleged affairs that he had with them.
After McMahon retired from WWE, he was suddenly replaced by his daughter Stephanie McMahon. She took the position of co-CEO along with Nick Khan. Stephanie got married to former WWE star Paul Levesque who is better known by his stage name Triple H. As McMahon retired from the company, the creative duties were taken over from him by Triple H, his son-in-law.
WWE is currently the largest professional wrestling company in the world and the company is known for the success that it had over the years. The success of the company can be understood from the $1.29 billion revenue generated by the company in the past year.
Experts have expressed that WWE will be a good fit with the Endeavour group and both the heads of the company are known for their oversized personalities too. Along with the other similarities, just like McMahon, White has also been the center of some controversies throughout his business career.
While McMahon was accused of having different affairs with multiple won over the past and having paid them to buy their silence, While was recently at the center of a controversy for physically abusing his wife. A video of the UFC boss surfaced where he was seen slapping his wife at a public event in Mexico.
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