Fight Club: Endeavor Is Ready to Rumble in Media With $21 Billion UFC-WWE Merger
variety.comEndeavor has drop-kicked a newly created sports entity that is built for the future of both television and fandom. As of Sept.
12, that new entity has started trading on the NYSE under the feisty ticker symbol TKO. “We sit at the epicenter of large and fast-growing markets,” Endeavor president Mark Shapiro promises. “We live in the world of the super fan.” TKO Group Holdings was birthed as a public company this month with the completion of Endeavor’s acquisition of WWE, the long-dominant pro wrestling company owned and operated for 70 years by the McMahon family.
Endeavor leaped at the chance to acquire the sui generis WWE franchise because it’s a natural companion business for UFC, the world’s most popular mixed martial arts league, which Endeavor bought for $4.1 billion in 2016.
At the time, the industry snickered that Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel overpaid for UFC in his zeal to expand Endeavor beyond its roots as a talent agency into a full-blown media company.
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