WWE sale expected to close next month

Endeavor, the parent company of the UFC, announced back in April that it was purchasing WWE and would merge the iconic pro wrestling brand with the mixed martial arts promotion to form a new publicly traded company. Now, in its latest earnings report, Endeavor has revealed it expects the merger to take place next month:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EDR) (“Endeavor” or the “Company”), a global sports and entertainment company, today released its financial results for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2023.

Highlights

$1.436 billion in Q2 2023 revenue, reflecting year-over-year growth across all four reporting segments

Transaction to combine UFC and WWE within TKO Group Holdings, Inc. expected to close in mid- to late September 2023

Completed sale of IMG Academy at an enterprise value of $1.25 billion, allowing the Company to commence share repurchases of up to $300 million of Class A common stock in the third quarter

Expect to begin making quarterly cash dividend payments at the end of Q3

A consequence of this will be cost saving measures, as Brandon Thurston noted from the earnings call:

We’ll have to see if that will include layoffs but it’s reasonable to expect as much, considering it’s fairly standard in situations like this.