TKO: The WWE/UFC Merger – It’s A New Day, Yes It Is

This week we saw the official close of the merger deal between Endeavor’s UFC and Vince McMahon’s WWE . The merged parent company TKO Group Holdings will trade under the stock listing TKO. The company also operates a new website, www.tkogrp.com, and those are likely the biggest changes to the company.

 As with nearly all mergers, there will be layoffs to reduce redundancies, but the 21 Billion dollar valued company will likely keep most of the internal operations the same. The brands also will retain their names so as to not devalue the social equity built up over the past few decades, as TKO Group Holdings appears to follow the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Prior to the merger, the separate companies combined for 2.5 Billion dollars in revenue in 2022 alone. 

Since the Merger was announced, social media has been flooded with comments predicting major changes to the WWE, especially as it relates to the role and influence of Vince McMahon. However, all evidence thus far has been to the contrary. Vince’s new title is Executive Chairman of TKO Group Holdings, while Nick Khan moves from WWE CEO to WWE President, while also holding a seat on the TKO Board of Directors. Along with Khan, the announced Board of Directors for TKO are: 

• Vince McMahon, executive chairman 
• Ari Emanuel, CEO 
• Mark Shapiro, president/COO 
• Peter Bynoe, senior adviser at multinational law firm DLA Piper 
• Egon Durban, co-CEO of private-equity firm Silver Lake 
• Steven Koonin, CEO of the Atlanta Hawks 
• Jonathan Kraft, president of the Kraft Group and president of the New England Patriots 
• Sonya Medina Williams, president and CEO of Reach Resilience 
• Nancy Tellem, executive chairperson and chief media officer of interactive-video company Eko 
• Carrie Wheeler, CEO and board member of Opendoor Technologies 

TKO Group Holding began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, September 12th.

Byron Hinton

@logicofstyles

@ftwleague