According to the report from Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics and POST Wrestling, newly unredacted court filings from a shareholder lawsuit have revealed for the first time that Tony Khan’s company Base 10 submitted a bid to acquire WWE in 2023 before Endeavor ultimately won the merger that created TKO Group Holdings.
The complaint, originally filed in Delaware Chancery Court in November 2023 and recently unredacted, confirms that Base 10 was among four companies that submitted formal offers to acquire WWE following Vince McMahon’s return to the company in January 2023. Although Tony Khan is not mentioned by name in the filing, Base 10 and All Elite Wrestling are both referenced, with the filing stating that Base 10 is the owner of All Elite Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion that plainly would enjoy significant synergies with WWE.
Base 10’s bid of $76.83 per share was the lowest of the four offers by a considerable margin, representing a full company valuation of approximately $6.9 billion. KKR offered between $90 and $97.50 per share, representing a valuation of $8.0 billion to $8.7 billion. Liberty Media bid between $95 and $100 per share, valuing the company at $8.5 billion to $8.9 billion. Endeavor’s winning offer was an all-stock deal valued at $95.66 per share before synergies, with WWE investors’ shares converting to TKO shares upon closing. TKO’s share price currently trades at approximately $200, roughly doubling the bid prices from 2023.
The post-deal narrative WWE filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the merger was agreed to had anonymized the bidders under pseudonyms. KKR was referred to as Financial Sponsor 1, Liberty Media as Strategic Party 1, and Base 10 as Strategic Party 2, though their bid prices were disclosed and connected to those pseudonyms. Khan’s identity as the party behind Strategic Party 2 is now being made public for the first time through the unredacted filings.
The SEC filing also noted that the party now confirmed to be Base 10 indicated it would need equity and debt financing partners in order to complete a transaction with WWE, suggesting the bid lacked the financial backing of the other three offers. Base 10’s bid did not advance to the data room stage, where the three remaining bidders were granted access to nonpublic information about WWE as part of the standard acquisition process.
Florida business records independently confirm Khan’s connection to Base 10. The company was incorporated in 2014 with Khan listed as its sole officer and the company’s address at the stadium for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the NFL team his family owns.
The plaintiff shareholders allege that the merger process was unfair and that Endeavor was preselected by McMahon because Endeavor’s lead executive Ari Emanuel assured McMahon’s continued role within the merged entity. The defendants deny that allegation. The lawsuit is set to go to trial in June.
When reached for comment, Khan declined to provide a statement.
