It was previously announced that the two industrial giants, WWE and UFC, would merge to form a publicly traded company. With that, fans were eagerly looking forward to the deal.
Finally, in September 2023, the two promotions merged to form TKO Group Holdings. It was a historical event and gave rise to a huge milestone. With that, the TKO group recently released revenue numbers. It seems WWE has earned a whopping $100,000,000 more than UFC in 2022. On the other hand, UFC has earned over $610 million in revenue in the first half of 2023 itself.
UFC’s parent company, TKO, released revenue numbers today
In the first half of 2023, UFC had over $610 million in revenue đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/uswgJNJGYL
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) November 2, 2023
From the released earnings report, it can be inferred that in the first quarter of 2023, UFC witnessed an 18 percent increase as compared to last year. While the growth percentage for the second quarter is 14 percent, on the other hand, in the first quarter of 2023, WWE has witnessed an increase of 11 percent. While the growth percentage for the second quarter is a whopping 25 percent.
The main motive behind merging the UFC and WWE was to make them stronger together rather than separately. It is to be noted that, as a result of the merger, TKO has amassed over 1 billion fans worldwide. Now that the revenue numbers have come into the spotlight, they speak for themselves.
What is the valuation of WWE in the merger?
Fans were initially looking forward to the merger of the UFC and WWE. However, once it was successful, they were wondering about the consequences of the deal. Besides that, many fans wondered about the WWE’s valuation in the breakthrough merger.
It is to be noted that following the merger, a controlling interest of 51 percent has been owned by the Endeavor group. On the other hand, the remaining 49 percent has been owned by WWE shareholders. With that, WWE’s valuation in the merger stands at $9.3 billion. On the other hand, the merger values UFC at $12.1 billion.
In addition, Vince McMahon, who was earlier the CEO of WWE, took up the role of executive chairman in the new company. McMahon was previously the controlling stakeholder in the Stamford-based promotion; however, as of now, he holds a 16.4 percent interest in the new company.
WWE confirms Merger With UFC Parent Endeavor 🤝
UFC parent company Endeavor have finalised a deal to buy WWE. The deal values WWE at $9.3 billion and combines UFC and WWE into one publicly traded company.#UFC #WWE pic.twitter.com/7Kkr6nyAm9
— SPORF (@Sporf) April 3, 2023
It is also mentionable that a few WWE executives received a sales bonus owing to the new deal. This includes WWE President Nick Khan, who received $15 million, and Chief Content Officer Triple H, who received $5 million, among others.
Thus, it can be understood that WWE had a decent valuation in the merger, and the deal proved to be beneficial for many. However, it’s been only two months since the deal was finalized. It remains to be seen what new changes will be introduced owing to the merger in the days ahead.