TKO CEO Ari Emanuel recently appeared on “The Town” with Matt Belloni, where he discussed various topics, including WWE and its parent company.
During the conversation, Belloni asked Emanuel who he considers the ideal buyer for TKO. Emanuel responded that the ideal buyer would be “TKO” itself, emphasizing that the sports entity, which includes UFC and WWE, would never be for sale.
When Belloni initially asked, “Who’s the ideal buyer for TKO?” Emanuel answered, “TKO.” Belloni then queried, “Now, someday it’ll be for sale,” to which Emanuel firmly replied, “No, it won’t.”
Belloni subsequently pressed, “You don’t think a big media company, Paramount? Comcast? Amazon?” Emanuel dismissed each name, stating, “No [Paramount]. No. Not for sale [Comcast]. Never [Amazon].” When Belloni asked why that is the case, Emanuel responded, “Why would it be?” Belloni remarked, “You’re an agent. Everything’s for sale.”
Emanuel elaborated on why the sports entertainment entity will never be for sale, explaining that he and his colleagues—Egon Durban, Mark Shapiro, and Patrick Whitesell—foresaw the direction of sports and streaming and recognized the value in owning sports leagues.
He noted, “Here’s the great thing. In 2016, we Egon Durban, Mark, myself, Patrick- saw where sports was going, saw where the streamers were going. At the time, people thought the value we were crazy to pay what we did when we bought IMG … we paid the two cheapest acquisitions of all time in the sports space, as my son Leo says to me, ‘Thursday is baby Friday, dad.’ With AI, probably Wednesday is going to be the baby Thursday; there’s going to be more free time than ever. People, 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 out all the bad things that could happen.”
He continued, “So, you’re sitting in a situation that there’s going to be more time for people to consume entertainment or social animals. Go out, go to sporting events, consume sports. Sports is the greatest reality show, right, 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 only going up and to the right, and so, Egon Durban, myself, I mean, there’s no chance that that’s happening. Zero.”
The merger of WWE and UFC to form TKO was completed in September 2023. Last month, TKO Group Holdings, LLC announced its second-quarter financial results for 2026, reporting total revenue of $1.547 billion, marking an 18% increase in revenue.
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
