This morning, as UFC CEO Dana White was in a car on his way to celebrate another milestone for his company and ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, he reflected on his 22 years at the UFC — back when Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta installed him as the company’s president.
The reason White thought back to the early days of UFC is because today is the day that TKO Group, which will combine WWE and UFC under one corporate umbrella, became official this morning. The company jointly owned by Endeavor (51%) and WWE (49%) started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TKO this morning.
“To have the company pulling the numbers that it is and pulling the numbers that we did through Covid, I’m still having fun,” White said. “I look forward to getting this done today and then seeing what we’re able to accomplish over the next couple of years.”
With the WWE as a corporate partner, White does not foresee any changes to his day-to-day life. “It really doesn’t change a thing for me or my staff,” he said. “We have a pretty well-oiled machine, and we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing.”
The benefits will come in areas like content sales, sponsorship, consumer products and production. “There’s just so much crossover between these two businesses, and we’re incredibly excited about what lies ahead,” said Lawrence Epstein, UFC’s Senior EVP/COO.
One of those areas, of course, is media rights. The UFC’s deal with ESPN runs until 2025. The WWE’s deal is up a year earlier.
WWE President Nick Khan, who negotiated the last WWE deal, as well as the SEC and Top Rank deals over the past several years, said he expects to start really pushing on negotiations as football season takes off. The fact that UFC’s primary broadcast partner is ESPN and WWE’s top broadcast deal is with rival NBC should help.
“You’ve seen bidding wars between Comcast and Disney on things like the Fox assets, which ultimately went to Disney, and Sky, which ultimately went to Comcast,” Khan said. “It does make one wonder how this might look down the road as both companies and as TKO enters into these negotiations. We think ratings, relevancy and revenue for both properties are off the charts, and, of course, we always want to grow that.”
Epstein credited Endeavor’s media rights experience with cutting UFC’s ESPN deal, and he expects Endeavor President & COO Mark Shapiro and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel to play a pivotal role in the current deals. “The good news is we’ve got the best in the business when it comes to negotiating these important rights deals here in the U.S. and frankly around the world,” he said.
TKO’s leadership team will include Emanuel and Shapiro as CEO and President and COO, respectively. They both will keep their roles at Endeavor. Andrew Schleimer is CFO and Seth Krauss is Chief Legal Officer.
WWE’s Vince McMahon is the executive chairman of TKO’s board of directors. Emanuel, Shapiro and Khan are on the board, as are:
Endeavor used Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as financial advisors on the deal, and Latham & Watkins and legal advisors. WWE used The Raine Group as the lead financial advisor, JP Morgan and Moelis & Co. as financial advisors. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison was WWE’s legal advisor, and Kirkland & Ellis was McMahon’s legal advisor.
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