Endeavor, the parent company of UFC, and Saudi Arabia have been considered the leading bidders in potentially acquiring WWE.
Vince McMahon has been exploring the possibility of a sale since returning as the WWE Board of Directors Executive Chairman last month. As previously reported, McMahon is looking for $9 billion for the company.
During Endeavor’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Ari Emanuel was asked about this and stated that they were not going to do anything that would change their leverage position for now, casting doubt they could buy WWE.
There has been speculation that AEW President Tony Khan could be a potential bidder. While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted Khan buying WWE is possible, but he would need partners to make it happen.
“The only person who could talk about it would be Tony Khan tomorrow, which I would suppose is very possible if someone would bring that up,” Meltzer stated. “Don’t know, but I mean, he has expressed interest, but for him to get it, he’d have to take in a lot of partners to get it, which is not out of the realm of possibility. They could put together a giant deal. But aside from that, the Saudis and the Khan family, nobody else has publicly expressed interest in buying it, and the price is in theory the price is very high, they threw that $9 billion figure out. Unless the Saudis have pretty much agreed to go with 9 billion, which is a very highly inflated figure that I don’t think anybody else would meet, then that’s probably where it’s gonna go. I mean, if it wasn’t for them, the figure would not be that high. But with them, the money is not as much of a deal as it is with other people trying to get a fair value for it.”
Meltzer continued, “They’re looking for something completely different, it’s a completely different animal, and they do want it. For all the talk, it doesn’t appear that any of the media companies are looking for it. I guess we will see. Kind of like NBCUniversal on MSNBC, one of the reporters went out there and basically said they weren’t interested. At that price, I can see why.”
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