TKO CEO Ari Emanuel was the latest guest on The Town with Matt Belloni. During the course of their conversation, Emanuel made it clear that WWE and UFC’s parent company will never, ever be up for sale.
Belloni: “Who is the ideal buyer for TKO?”
Ari: “TKO.”
Belloni: “Some day it will be for sale.”
Ari: “No. It won’t.”
Belloni: “No?”
Ari: “No. Never.”
Belloni: “You don’t think a big media company [like] Paramount, Comcast, Amazon…”
Ari: “No. Not for sale. Never.”
Belloni: “Why?”
Ari: “Why would it be?”
Belloni:
“You’re an agent. Everything is for sale!”
In explaining why TKO will never be up for sale, Ari first mentioned how he saw where sports and streaming were going back in 2016, so he made purchases in the sports world that other people thought were crazy. Now he sees where AI is going. Assuming it doesn’t lead to world annihilation, AI will help create a future where people have more money and free time than ever to consume sports and entertainment. That is only going to make TKO’s value skyrocket.
Ari: “There’s gonna be more free time than ever. If we grow at three percent GDP, we’re gonna 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.”
Belloni: “Annihilation out of the picture?”
Ari: “So you’re sitting in a situation that there’s gonna be more time for people to consume entertainment. We’re social animals. [We] 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 only going up and to the right…There’s no chance that [we’re selling TKO]. Zero.”
Are you sold on Ari’s logic about AI being super awesome for TKO’s future value (as long as it doesn’t end the world)? Let me know in the comments below what you plan to do with all this extra money and free time that’s coming your way, Cagesiders, unless you already spent it all at the gas pump.
