Nick Khan Discusses Potential Budget Cuts Following UFC Merger

In a recent interview with “Lightshed Live,” WWE CEO Nick Khan discussed the plans for cost synergy between WWE and UFC now that the Endeavor Group is in the process of acquiring WWE and merging both companies, provisionally effective later this year.

He emphasized that the most important aspect for him is that the product remains untouched. Khan also mentioned that the company is aiming for lean and mean operations and is relying on the Endeavor flywheel to make up the rest of the cost savings. The creative and production teams will be protected from cutbacks, but other efficiencies throughout the organization will be targeted. Khan said,

“If you look at what Endeavor was able to take out, cost-wise, from UFC in 2016 or shortly after that deal was done, we have the same expectation here. We think 50 (million) is a really conservative number. We have integration teams now, we’re going to get those in shape, I think we’ll have a better sense of it in a month or two. We’re going to be pretty aggressive with them to make sure that, for our shareholders and for our company, our organization is as lean and mean as possible, and we’re going to rely on the Endeavor flywheel to make up the rest.”

“There are other costs. What we always want to be protective of is our creative team, our production team. Keep in mind, none of us have anything to sell and the company would have been transacted at this price point if the product wasn’t great. The most important thing is to leave the product untouched. Untouched, meaning, if Triple H and Kevin Dunn want to evolve it, great, but in terms of cutbacks there, that’s not what we’re looking to do. Other efficiencies around the company, we’ll get in the middle of, and let’s see how it shakes out.”

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