WWE parent company finalizes On Location, Professional Bull Riders & IMG acquisitions

The acquisition of Professional Bull Riders (PBR), On Location, and IMG by TKO — the parent company of WWE & UFC — is now complete.

First announced in October, TKO acquired the assets from Endeavor in an all-stock deal valued at $3.25 billion. The finalized deal was announced Friday.

Ari Emanuel is the CEO of both Endeavor and TKO. The impetus of the transaction was the lead-up to Endeavor wanting to go private in a proposed transaction with private equity firm Silver Lake. As a result, they were looking to shed some of their assets.

While PBR doesn’t have a logical tie-in with either WWE or UFC, both On Location and IMG do.

The former is a premium event company that provides VIP experiences for more than 1200 sporting events including for the Super Bowl and NCAA Final Four. TKO executive Mark Shapiro has spoken publicly in the past about wanting to increase those opportunities for both WWE and UFC who both currently use On Location.

IMG has many different business tentacles as they both distribute and produce sports content, handle media rights and brand partnerships, and offer digital services and event management. Clients include the NFL and NHL. Both WWE and UFC are listed under their current portfolio of clients.

PBR will be part of a TKO “takeover” weekend coming up in Kansas City that includes a PBR event Thursday, UFC Saturday and WWE on Monday all in the same T-Mobile Center in April.

TKO just held their quarterly investors call this week, reporting annual revenue of over $2.8 billion in their first full calendar year as an organization.