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Mixed martial arts powerhouse UFC and sports entertainment giant WWE are betting that they are even stronger together. So executives from UFC owner Endeavor and WWE, fresh off WrestleMania 39 weekend in Los Angeles, stepped into the spotlight to unveil a merger to form a global live sports and entertainment titan, 51 percent controlled by Endeavor and 49 percent owned by WWE shareholders.

The opening bell for the new tag team and its stock, under ticker symbol Tko, is only officially set to sound during the second half of 2023, when the partners expect to close the deal. However, Wall Street on Monday analyzed the deal details and initial management commentary, finding some investor questions answered and others raised.

Will another bidder emerge?

The leak of the planned deal on April 2 “should ease investor skepticism concerning Vince McMahon’s seriousness about selling the company,” emphasized Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino in a report written before the official deal announcement.

Forty-three years after Vince McMahon founded the company now known as the WWE, and 70 years after his father entered the professional wrestling business, the McMahon family appears ready to give up control of their empire, closing in on a multibillion-dollar deal to sell the WWE to Endeavor, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Assuming the deal is completed, the expectation is that the WWE would be merged with Endeavor’s UFC to create a new stand-alone public company, with the Ari Emanuel-led firm holding a majority stake. CNBC first reported the deal with Endeavor.

The companies are in advanced talks, and a deal may be announced this week. The WWE is holding its flagship Wrestlemania event in Los Angeles over the weekend.

The potential sale comes after McMahon’s January return to the sports entertainment company as executive chairman. In 2022, he retired from the company amid a misconduct investigation by the board of directors.

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With M&a speculation swirling around the entertainment industry, including NBCUniversal owner Comcast, the media giant’s chairman and CEO Brian Roberts reiterated that the bar for acquisitions was “very high” for his team.

Asked on Thursday during the second-quarter earnings conference call how he feels about the state and look of the conglomerate, he said: “We are in a fabulous place.” He continued: “We have unprecedented cash flow and scale” with a company whose various businesses are working “really well together.”

His team is always thinking about “whether this is the competitive, right set [of assets] for the company, and I feel it is,” added Roberts. “All parts of the company are really doing a great job in some interesting times. … I feel we are able to return capital to shareholders. I think that has been a real focus.”

In terms of possible acquisitions, “our...

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It’s the end of an era. But is it the start of a new dawn? For 40 years, Vince McMahon reigned as the boss of World Wrestling Entertainment. Then, after The Wall Street Journal reported that he had sexual relationships with female employees and gave them millions in alleged hush money payments, he abruptly retired July 22 as chairman and CEO. The company now says it will revise past financial statements to account for 14.6 million in “unrecorded expenses” that have or will be made by McMahon from 2006 through 2022, with investigations also alluded to in filings.

The transition is leading some financial observers to bring up a question that’s been brewing for years: Could WWE now be sold by McMahon, its controlling shareholder? Loop Capital analyst Alan Gould is among those who see an increased chance of that happening. He upgraded WWE’s stock...