Bad News Coming From Wall Street for TKO After WWE Bags the $1.4 Billion Deal

TKO Group Holdings is currently one of the biggest sports entertainment companies as it owns both the WWE and UFC. The WWE-UFC merger resulting in its creation might have been good news for Triple H and Nick Khan because of the hefty bonuses. However, it seems that some bad news has just hit them. Yesterday, TKO Group Holdings suffered a major loss thanks to WWE’s newest deal.

WWE signed a five-year domestic media rights partnership with NBC’s USA Network worth $1.4 billion. As per the deal, USA Network will now be airing SmackDown from October 2024. With this partnership, however, TKO has hit its first major financial hurdle since the merger.

TKO Group Holdings stock price drops

WWE and UFC merged into one major company called TKO Group Holdings last week. Several WWE stars, alongside Triple H, were present for the bell-ringing ceremony at the The New York Stock Exchange, including Bianca Belair. UFC was valued at $12.1 billion and the WWE at $9.3 billion, taking the total valuation of the newly merged company to $21.4 billion. This makes it one of the biggest sports entertainment companies in the world.

Just to put things into perspective, the net worth of the NFL is close to $150 billion dollars. So TKO Holdings still has a long way to go but $21.4 billion is no chump change. But what seems like its first-ever growth hurdle is the hit it took yesterday at the stock market. The conglomerate’s stock price dropped from $100.87 to $88.49 due to WWE’s new deal with NBC’s USA Network.

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This deal between the two media giants brought down TKO’s stock by over 12% in intraday trading yesterday. Though this might be TKO’s first financial hurdle as a company, WWE has also had to sacrifice many stars from its roster thanks to the merger.

WWE released Dolph Ziggler, Mustafa Ali, and many others

WWE has already laid off more than 100 employees due to its merger with UFC. And now the WWE roster has to finally face the brunt as well.

Big superstars from the NXT brand were let go as part of this layoff on Thursday. Stars like Dolph Ziggler, Shelton Benjamin, Mustafa Ali, Elias, Emma, Riddick Moss, Mace and Mansoor, and many more were let go.

The layoff bomb was dropped the same day that WWE announced it would be hosting the  Elimination Chamber in Australia. What are your opinions on TKO Holdings stock prices dropping by more than 12%?

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