WWE Parent Company TKO Settles Two UFC Lawsuits For Massive Aggregate Payouts
As the big legal story in wrestling continues to be the lawsuit, and federal investigation, into sex trafficking and abuse allegations against former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, WWE's parent company, TKO Holdings, has been dealing with another legal situation regarding UFC. The MMA promotion has seen two anti-trust lawsuits against it gain steam over the past few months, with the expectation the lawsuits could reach the trial stage, and possibly lead to significant changes to the MMA landscape should a judgment have gone against UFC.
Today, those worries were put to rest. In an SEC filing, TKO announced that they had settled all claims regarding the two class action lawsuits, agreeing to pay an aggregate total of $335 million over an undisclosed period of time. The settlement puts an end to class action suits that began back in 2014 and would grow to include nearly 1,200 fighters who once fought in UFC.
Had the class action suits not been settled and resulted in a verdict against them in trial, TKO and UFC could've been on the hook to pay between at least $800 million to $1.6 billion. As a result, the settlement not only saved the company a lot of money but also proved to be beneficial to their stock, which rose nearly 6% to $85.78 per share following the announcement.
TKO shares jumped immediately, coinciding with the timing of the 8-K about the settlement being released. pic.twitter.com/H6NVbu7ICr
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) March 20, 2024
The class-action suits become the second legal matter that TKO has settled during over the last few months. Previously, TKO had settled an anti-trust case, this time concerning a suit filed by MLW against WWE, with the two sides reaching an agreement that saw MLW receive $20 million back in December 2023.