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Ari Emanuel breaks down new merger between WWE and UFC, named TKO

Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment executives decided to name their new publicly traded company TKO to honor the companies’ expertise in fighting, but they have broader aspirations than just owning combat sports.

TKO began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, culminating a merger of two live-entertainment juggernauts that was announced in April. The combined company is 51% owned by Endeavor Group Holdings, which owns assets including UFC and Hollywood talent agency WME, and 49% owned by WWE shareholders.

Shares rose 2.4% on Tuesday.

The first 18 months of the company’s existence will revolve around integrating UFC and WWE, Mark Shapiro, TKO’s president and chief operating officer, said in an interview with CNBC. That includes eventually going to market together for international media rights and bringing together the company’s production efforts and back offices, Shapiro said.

After that, TKO plans to swing into acquisition mode to grow the company, he said.

“We will ultimately be in the marketplace looking for other sports properties that we can bolt onto the flywheel enhanced by Endeavor,” Shapiro said, adding the company has a strong desire to expand internationally.

Endeavor also owns Professional Bull Riders and two tennis tournaments — the Mutua Madrid Open and the Miami Open. The “flywheel” includes Endeavor’s representation of professional athletes through WME, its expertise in negotiating media rights, product licensing and enhancing live events to boost venue fees. Shapiro also envisions direct-to-consumer options with TKO that don’t exist yet.

WWE currently streams on NBCUniversal’s Peacock in a deal that concludes in 2026. Shapiro said other streaming entities have already expressed interest in bidding on the rights when that deal expires.

In the coming months, TKO executives will also negotiate new media deals for WWE “Raw” and “SmackDown” on traditional pay TV. NBCUniversal and Fox currently own those rights.

Who runs TKO?

Vince McMahon, 78, is the executive chairman of TKO and Ari Emanuel is the CEO. Shapiro made it clear who will be the company’s leader.

“Ari Emanuel is running the company,” Shapiro said. “Vince will play a role. He’s got experience and influence. But he understands the role of CEO is Ari’s. This is not a shared position.”

McMahon has earned a reputation as a force of personality, both as a WWE character and behind the scenes, in his more than 40 years running WWE. He’s also had some recent legal issues. On July 17, according to a recent filing, federal law enforcement agents served a federal grand jury subpoena on McMahon stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct. No charges have been brought in the investigation.

Shapiro noted Emanuel has already proven he can run a company along side a sports league co-founder with a big personality and checkered past. Dana White, UFC’s president, has dealt with a number of controversies in his personal life, including slapping his wife in a recorded video, while brashly and unapologetically staying in his job.

“Me leaving hurts the company. Hurts my employees. Hurts the fighters. Doesn’t hurt me,” said White during a media event earlier this year “Do I need to reflect? No, I don’t need to reflect. … I own this. I’m telling you that I’m wrong.”

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

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Former Trump advisor Dina Powell McCormick leaves Meta board after eight-month stint

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Former Trump advisor Dina Powell McCormick leaves Meta board after eight-month stint

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Dina Powell McCormick, who was a member of President Donald Trump’s first administration, has resigned from Meta’s board of directors.

Powell McCormick, who previously spent 16 years working at Goldman Sachs, notified Meta of her resignation on Friday, according to a filing with the SEC. The filing did not disclose why McCormick was stepping down from Meta’s board, but said her resignation was effective immediately.

Meta does not plan on replacing her board role, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named due to confidentiality. Powell McCormick is considering a potential strategic advisory role with Meta, but nothing has been decided, the person said.

Powell McCormick joined Meta’s board in April along with Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement at the time that the two executives “bring a lot of experience supporting businesses and entrepreneurs to our board.”

Powell McCormick served as a deputy national security advisor to President Trump during his first stint in office and was also an assistant secretary of state during President George W. Bush’s administration.

She is married to Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa, who took office in January.

Powell McCormick is the vice chair, president and head of global client services at BDT & MSD Partners, which formed in 2023 after the merchant bank BDT combined with Michael Dell’s investment firm MSD.

With her departure, Meta now has 14 board members, including UFC CEO Dana White, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and former Enron executive John Arnold.

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Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay package must be restored as court rules cancellation was too extreme

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Musk's  billion Tesla pay package must be restored as court rules cancellation was too extreme

Elon Musk's 2018 Tesla pay package must be restored, Delaware Supreme Court rules

Elon Musk‘s 2018 CEO pay package from Tesla, worth some $56 billion when it vested, must be restored, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled Friday.

“We reverse the Court of Chancery’s rescission remedy and award $1 in nominal damages,” the judges wrote in their opinion.

In the decision, the Delaware Supreme Court judges said a lower court’s decision to cancel Musk’s 2018 pay plan was too extreme a remedy and that the lower court did not give Tesla a chance to say what a fair compensation ought to be.

The decision on the appeal in this case, known as Tornetta v. Musk, likely ends the yearslong fight over Musk’s record-setting compensation.

Musk’s net worth is currently estimated at around $679.4 billion, according to the Forbes Real Time Billionaires List.

Dorothy Lund, a professor at Columbia Law School, told CNBC that while the Friday opinion may restore the 2018 pay plan for Musk, it leaves the rest of the lower court’s decision unaddressed and intact.

“The court had previously decided that Musk was a controlling shareholder of Tesla and that the Tesla board and he arranged an unfair pay plan for him,” she said. “None of that was reversed in this decision.”

“We are proud to have participated in the historic verdict below, calling to account the Tesla board and its largest stockholder for their breaches of fiduciary duty,” lawyers representing plaintiff Richard J. Tornetta said in an e-mailed statement.

Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Delaware Supreme Court issued the order per curiam with no single judge taking credit for writing the opinion and no dissent noted.

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Musk’s 2018 CEO pay package from Tesla, comprised of 12 milestone-based tranches of stock, was unprecedented at the time it was proposed. After it was granted, the pay plan made Musk the wealthiest individual in the world.

Tesla shareholder Tornetta sued Tesla, filing a derivative action in 2018, accusing Musk and the company’s board of a breach of their fiduciary duties.

Delaware’s business-specialized Court of Chancery decided in January 2024 that the pay plan was improperly granted and ordered it to be rescinded.

In her decision, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick also found that Musk “controlled Tesla,” and that the process leading to the board’s approval of his 2018 pay plan was “deeply flawed.”

Among other things, she found the Tesla board did not disclose all the material information they should have to investors before asking them to vote on and approve the plan.

After the earlier Tornetta ruling, Musk moved Tesla’s site of incorporation out of Delaware, bashed McCormick by name in posts on his social network X, formerly Twitter, where he has tens of millions of followers, and called for other entrepreneurs to reincorporate outside of the state.

Tesla also attempted to “ratify” the 2018 CEO pay plan by holding a second vote with shareholders in 2024.

In November, Tesla shareholders voted to approve an even larger CEO compensation plan for Musk.

The 2025 pay plan consists of 12 tranches of shares to be granted to the CEO if Tesla hits certain milestones over the next decade and is worth about $1 trillion in total. The new plan could also increase Musk’s voting power over the company from around 13% today to around 25%.

Shareholders had also approved a plan to replace Musk’s 2018 CEO pay if the Tornetta decision was upheld on appeal. That plan is now nullified.

As CNBC previously reported, a law firm that currently represents Tesla in this appeal penned a bill to overhaul corporate law in Delaware earlier this year. The bill was passed by the Delaware legislature in March, and if it had applied retroactively, it could have affected the outcome of this case.

Read the Delaware Supreme Court’s ruling here.

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Cramer says Boeing is a buy here — plus, Wells Fargo and bank stocks keep rolling

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Cramer says Boeing is a buy here — plus, Wells Fargo and bank stocks keep rolling

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