Effortthe Hollywood talent giant, which owns art fair and media company Frieze, has acquired World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in a $9.3 billion deal that will see the wrestling promotion company partner with another combat sports company owned by Endeavor in a merger worth more than $21 billion.
Effort announcement this week it signed an agreement to form a new sports and entertainment company by acquiring WWE and merging it with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a mixed martial arts company acquired by Endeavor in 2016. Last year, the two companies collectively earned $2.4 billion. in revenue and have enjoyed a 10% annual growth rate since 2019, according to Endeavour.
After the deal closes, Endeavor will own a 51% majority stake in the new company, while WWE shareholders will own 49%. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year, according to Endeavour.
The new company – which has not been named but intends to trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol “TKO”, which is also an abbreviation of the fight term “technical knockout” – will led by Endeavor boss and art collector Ari Emanuel as general manager, while WWE’s Vince McMahon will serve as executive chairman of the board.
It’s the latest high-profile acquisition from Endeavour, which first bought a 70% stake in Frieze in 2016, the same year the company bought shares of UFC (last year , Endeavor redeemed CFU). Since Endeavor acquired Frieze, the arts media company has grown with new fairs in Los Angeles (where Endeavor is based) and Seoul.
“I wanted Endeavor to be a cultural ambassador – if you want to be a cultural ambassador, the center of that is art,” Emanuel said. vanity lounge last year, adding that the importance of art in its industry is something that cannot be measured by economic profits and losses alone.
Frieze announced in 2020 that Simon Fox, a former UK media executive, would take over as company director. first general manager. In addition to its four international art fairs, Frieze’s business includes media production, musical performances and an art publication.
In 2021, Endeavor went public with an initial public offering on the NYSE. Endeavor made headlines in 2019 after the company returned a $400 million investment of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund for the murder of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
