Ari Emanuel, UFC and WWE owner, is now officially a billionaire for the first time in his career
Emanuel, who is the CEO of TKO Group Holdings — the combined corporate umbrella for combat giants UFC and WWE — and Endeavor Group Holdings, was officially added to the Bloomberg Billionaire index for his personal wealth for the first time in his career, the network reported earlier this month. It's unclear what Emanuel's personal net worth actually is, but it has surpassed the $1 billion threshold.
A big force in Emanuel finally hitting that mark has to do with his ownership of both the UFC and WWE. Endeavor Group Holdings has seen a nearly 50% jump in share price over the past year. Emanuel and the company purchased the UFC for $4 billion in 2016, and later took over WWE. It acquired WWE for $9.3 billion in 2023 and merged it with the UFC into TKO Group. That company's stock price has gone up by more than 70% since its public listing, per the report.
TKO is now valued at more than $27 billion. Both the UFC and WWE have seen significant growth in recent years with Emanuel and his groups in charge, too. WWE inked a $5 billion deal with Netflix for 'Monday Night Raw,' and UFC is working for a new broadcast rights deal starting in 2026 that could surpass $1 billion per year.
Before getting into the fighting space, Emanuel's company represented clients like Oprah Winfrey and Matt Damon. He worked as Donald Trump's agent in 2010 before he ran for president, and he has a strong relationship with Elon Musk. Endeavor was the first outside investor in Musk's push to buy Twitter.
Emanuel was also the inspiration for the character 'Ari Gold,' who was portrayed by Jeremy Piven on the HBO series 'Entourage.' He is also an early investor in Uber and a founding investor in the Raine Group, which is a global merchant bank. Both of those, Bloomberg said, could raise his net worth significantly.
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