Ari Emanuel Says TKO Will Never Be For Sale

TKO will ‘never be for sale’ according to TKO Executive Chairman Ari Emanuel.

Emanuel was talking to Matt Beloni on The Town whilst on a promotional tour for his new book, when the subject of TKO one day going up for sale was raised. Emanuel curtly responded that the group won’t ever be for sale, saying the following when pressed for further comment:



“Why would it be? Here’s the great thing. In 2016, Egon Durban, Mark [Shapiro], myself, Patrick [Whitesell], we saw where sports was going and saw where the streamers were going. At the time, people thought that the value — [that] we were crazy to pay what we did when we bought IMG [or] crazy that we paid the two cheapest acquisitions of all time in the sports space.

“As my son Leo says to me, ‘Thursday is baby Friday’. With AI, probably Wednesday is going to be the baby Thursday. There’s going to be more free time than ever. If we grow at 3% GDP, we’re going to have more money than we’ve ever had with AI in my opinion, and I agree with that. Take all the bad things that could happen, you’re sitting in a situation that there’s going to be more time for people to consume entertainment or [be] social animals. Go out, go to sporting events, consume sports. Sports is the greatest reality show of all time. Owning sports assets — now people are trying to own teams — we own four leagues. It’s an incredible asset. The value is going up and to the right. Egon Durban, myself — there’s no chance that that’s happening. Zero,” said Emanuel.

TKO holdings formed in 2023 with a merger of WWE and UFC, with both entities having bought by Emanuel’s Endeavor group in the preceding years.

H/T: Fightful