Endeavor Officially Announces WWE Purchase, UFC Merger

Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. officially announced its purchase of World Wrestling Entertainment as part of its plan to merge the professional wrestling company with Ultimate Fighting Championship as a new, merged publicly listed company in a news release on Monday (April 3) morning.

“This is a rare opportunity to create a global live sports and entertainment pureplay built for where the industry is headed,” said Ariel Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor. “For decades, Vince and his team have demonstrated an incredible track record of innovation and shareholder value creation, and we are confident that Endeavor can deliver significant additional value for shareholders by bringing UFC and WWE together.”

The deal is reported to be valued at $9.3 billion, according to Reuters.

Endeavor will hold 51% of the new combat sports and entertainment company, while WWE shareholders will hold for 49%. The report comes hours after the conclusion WrestleMania 39, WWE's biggest annual event.

Longtime WWE chairman Vince McMahon will serve as executive chairman, while Endeavor President Mark Shapiro will continue the same role with the new company.

“Given the incredible work that Ari and Endeavor have done to grow the UFC brand – nearly doubling its revenue over the past seven years – and the immense success we’ve already had in partnering with their team on a number of ventures, I believe that this is without a doubt the best outcome for our shareholders and other stakeholders,” McMahon said. “Together, we will be a $21+ billion live sports and entertainment powerhouse with a collective fanbase of more than a billion people and an exciting growth opportunity.

"The new company will be well positioned to maximize the value of our combined media rights, enhance sponsorship monetization, develop new forms of content and pursue other strategic mergers and acquisitions to further bolster our strong stable of brands. I, along with the current WWE management team, look forward to working closely with Ari and the Endeavor and UFC teams to take the businesses to the next level.”

In January, WWE was reported to have hired JPMorgan to help advise a possible sale, CNBC reported at the time. The move came within of McMahon officially returning and electing himself to WWE's board of directors on Friday (January 6).

McMahon still had majority voting power through his ownership of the company's Class-B stock, which allowed him to add himself, as well as former co-presidents and directors, Michelle Wilson and George Barrios, to WWE's board, a move required three former directors to vacate their positions.

WWE's board of directors had previously rejected a move to reinstate McMahon since his retirement last year.

McMahon announced his retirement amid a sexual-harassment scandal in an official statement shared by the company, confirming his daughter, then-acting chairwoman and CEO Stephanie McMahon, and WWE President Nick Khan, would take over as co-CEOs amid his departure.

Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, McMahon's son-in-law and a former top in-ring performer, took over WWE creative amid McMahon's departure.

In August, an SEC filing confirmed McMahon paid a total of $19.6 million in personal expenses.

The payments, which were uncovered during the company's ongoing investigation into claims of sexual misconduct committed by McMahon, made two payments in 2007 and 2009 that should have been included in the company's consolidated financial statements.

In July, the Wall Street Journal, which exclusively reported WWE's investigation a $3 million hush-money settlement paid by McMahon to a woman over an alleged affair, reported that the 76-year-old paid more than $12 million in hush money to four women during the past 16 years in an effort to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.

McMahon initially stepped down from his responsibilities voluntarily amid the ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct and would be replaced by his daughter on an interim basis.

Since then, McMahon had made multiple in-character appearances on both Friday Night SmackDown and Monday Night Raw, though not directly addressing the allegations or investigation and appeared publicly at the UFC 276 event in Las Vegas shortly after the conclusion of WWE's Money in the Bank event in the same city.

According to the Journal, an agreement was made in January 2022 to prevent the woman, a former WWE paralegal, from discussing her relationship with McMahon or making critical statements about him publicly.

A spokesperson for WWE confirmed to the Journal that the company was cooperating with the board's investigation -- which was launched in April -- and that the relationship between the 76-year-old and the former employee was consensual.

McMahon has been married to his wife, Linda -- who served as WWE's president and later CEO from 1980 to 2009 and later as Small Business Administration chief as part of former President Donald Trump's administration from 2017 to 2019 -- since 1966.

The Journal also reports that the board's investigation revealed other nondisclosure pacts stemming from misconduct claims involving other women who had previously worked for WWE, which involved McMahon and John Laurinaitis, WWE's general manager of talent relations, who was reportedly fired on Monday (August 8), according to PWInsider.

McMahon had previously disposed 38,519 of his shares of World Wrestling Entertainment stock at $0 following his recent retirement, but still remained the company's top shareholder, according to an SEC filing shared on WWE's official corporate website on July 26.