Major shakeup in WWE-UFC merger: Board of Directors to consist of just one McMahon family member

Back in April, Endeavor announced its plan to purchase WWE and merge it with UFC; the deal is expected to close next month.

New documents filed today with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission revealed names for 10 of the 11 members of the Board of Directors for the merged company.

First, here are the rules governing how those 11 board members are to be selected between WWE and Endeavor:

“Under the terms of the transaction agreement, upon the completion of the Transactions, the New PubCo Board will consist of 11 members who will be determined prior to the Closing, five of whom will be selected by WWE, of whom two will be members of the WWE management team (one of whom will be Mr. McMahon) and three will be independent, and six of whom will be selected by Endeavor, of whom three will be members of the Endeavor management team or Endeavor directors (one of whom will be Mr. Emanuel) and three will be independent. As such, while New PubCo will be a controlled company, a majority of New PubCo directors will be independent.

Upon election by the stockholders of New PubCo, the directors of New PubCo will serve one-year terms until the next annual meeting of stockholders and their successors are duly elected and qualified or until their earlier resignation or removal.”

Based on those rules, only two of the 11 board members come from WWE’s management team, and you won’t be surprised to see that those two people are Vince McMahon and Nick Khan.

Here is the list of the 10 board members named in this filing, their age, whether they are selected by WWE or Endeavor, and the briefest biographical tidbit:

Vincent K. McMahon (77, WWE) – Executive Chairman of WWE
Ariel Emanuel (62, Endeavor) – CEO of Endeavor
Egon P. Durban (49, Endeavor) – Co-CEO of Silver Lake, Endeavor board member
Nick Khan (48, WWE) – CEO of WWE
Steven R. Koonin (66, WWE) – CEO of the Atlanta Hawks
Jonathan A.