Chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. Vince McMahon appears in the ring during the WWE Monday Night Raw show at the Thomas & Mack Center on August 24, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ethan Miller | Getty Images

World Wrestling Entertainment and Endeavor’s UFC announced last month that they would merge later this year. We now know the name of the merged company.

The new operation will be called TKO Group Holdings, the spokeswoman said Endeavor confirmed tuesday. As previously announced, will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker TKO. The name is a reference to the professional fighting term “technical knockout”.

With this deal, Endeavor and WWE hope to create a sports entertainment giant worth more than $20 billion.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel will also be CEO of TKO Group, while Vince McMahon, majority shareholder and longtime WWE boss, will serve as executive chairman of the new company. Endeavor will own a 51% stake, while WWE shareholders will get the remaining 49%.

Emanuel said he intends to run “the same playbook” with WWE as Endeavor with the UFC, which saw revenue grow 20% from 2021 to 2022.

“We’ve had a number of successes with media rights,” Emanuel said last month. “The WWE is similar in scale to the UFC. In an asset universe of this scale, the opportunity is rare and finite.”

The transaction should be closed in the second half of the year. The UFC and WWE will retain their respective names as part of the TKO Group.

Despite the script of WWE and the authentic fights of UFC, the two organizations have a lot in common in terms of the content and culture of combat sports.

“This is going to be UFC 2.0,” Emanuel said in an interview that aired on CNBC last month.Shouting in the street.”

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