Endeavor, the parent company of the merged UFC and
WWE entity that comprises TKO Group Holdings, is putting even more distance between itself and former executive chairman and ex-WWE owner Vince McMahon. Endeavor also announced last week it was going private in a $13 billion deal with private-equity firm Silver Lake — a move that doesn’t involve TKO Group, which has a larger valuation with the UFC currently worth $12B and WWE $8.37B. According to multiple reports, Endeavor and TKO Group are buying back 3.49 million shares of TKO stock worth approximately $311.2M from McMahon, who resigned from the company in January after a lawsuit was filed against him by a former WWE employee alleging he sexually assaulted and sex trafficked her. McMahon has been selling off his personal shares in the company little by little, including $670M last November, $408M in early March and another $100M later in March. MMAFighting.com reported that McMahon has made more than $1.4 billion in total from selling off all of his TKO stock. Once the latest transaction between Endeavor/TKO and McMahon is finalized, he’ll still have roughly eight million shares left, though 7.17M of those shares are tied to loans from various banks used as collateral, which need to be paid back. WWE hosted WrestleMania 40 over the weekend at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia — the first WrestleMania pay-per-view card with McMahon’s involvement. The event drew a two-night total of 145,420, including 72,755 on Sunday which featured a main event between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns for the undisputed WWE championship.