Reunited! (And it feels so good.)
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the largest and most prolific professional wrestling company in history, is expected to be sold at some point later this year in much the same way Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was gobbled up back in summer 2016.
In fact, WWE may end up with the same owner, as Endeavor is currently listed among the “most plausible buyers,” according to WrestleNomics, alongside Comcast — parent company of NBC Universal — and Amazon, which recently got into the MMA business.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund also expressed interest.
“We’ve shown [Wall Street] and frankly, everybody else in the industry that cares, what we can do when you put the UFC on top of the Endeavor platform,” Endeavor President Mark Shapiro previously told The Town. “There are just all kinds of levers we can flip. When it comes to WWE? Yes, that would be something interesting and it would be worth exploring.”
WWE reportedly hired JPMorgan to advise the company on a potential sale.
Vince McMahon recently returned to the WWE board after a sexual harassment scandal sent him into a brief retirement. The day-to-day operations are not expected to change; however, McMahon is expected to assist with a potential sale.
“My return will allow WWE, as well as any transaction counterparties, to engage in these processes knowing they will have the support of the controlling shareholder,” McMahon said in recent press release.
A potential sale is could go down within the next “three-to-six months.”