Andrew Ravens
Tony Khan’s company, Base 10, submitted a bid to acquire WWE when the promotion was put up for sale in 2023, according to court filings related to an ongoing shareholder lawsuit that was obtained by Brandon Thurston of WrestleNomics and POST Wrestling. The bid, valued at approximately $6.9 billion, was the lowest of four offers submitted during the merger and acquisition process that was ultimately won by Endeavor, creating TKO Group Holdings.
The shareholder class action lawsuit was originally filed in Delaware Chancery Court in November 2023, and recently, unredacted versions of the complaint and defendants’ legal responses have become public for the first time. While KKR and Liberty Media had been identified as bidders in prior reporting and public filings, Base 10’s participation is being publicly confirmed for the first time in these documents.
The filing describes Base 10’s direct connection to AEW, stating that the company “is the owner of All Elite Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion that plainly would enjoy significant synergies with WWE.” Although Tony Khan is not named in the complaint, the connection between Base 10 and Khan is established through multiple public records.
Florida business records show that BASE10, Inc. was incorporated in 2014, with Khan listed as its sole officer, and that the company’s address was registered at the stadium for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the NFL team his family owns. When Khan acquired sports analytics firm TruMedia Networks in 2015, he was quoted in Sports Business Journal, which referenced the formation of Base 10 directly.
The four bids submitted during the sale process broke down as follows. Base 10 offered $76.83 per share, translating to a full company valuation of approximately $6.9 billion. KKR offered a range between $90 and $97.50 per share, representing a valuation of roughly $8.0 billion to $8.7 billion. Liberty Media’s bid was between $95 and $100 per share, totaling approximately $8.5 billion to $8.9 billion. Endeavor’s winning offer was an all-stock deal valued at $95.66 per share before synergies. TKO’s share price has since risen to approximately $200, effectively doubling the 2023 bid prices.
Base 10’s offer was noted in WWE’s regulatory filings — where it was anonymized as “Strategic Party 2” — as requiring equity and debt financing partners to complete a transaction. The three higher bids from Endeavor, KKR, and Liberty were strong enough to grant those parties access to a data room containing nonpublic WWE information, a standard step in acquisition processes. There is no indication in the available filings that Base 10 or any representative of Khan’s company was granted the same access, likely because its offer was the lowest of the four.
The plaintiffs in the shareholder lawsuit allege that the sale process was unfair and that Endeavor was effectively preselected by Vince McMahon because Endeavor’s lead executive, Ari Emanuel, had assured McMahon’s continued future with the company. The defendants deny that allegation.
Defendants in the case include McMahon, WWE President Nick Khan, Chief Content Officer Paul Levesque, and former board members George Barrios and Michelle Wilson. McMahon resigned from all roles at WWE and TKO in January 2024 after former employee Janel Grant filed a sex trafficking lawsuit against him, which he denies. That case remains ongoing in federal court in Connecticut.
The unredacted versions of the court documents were filed publicly following a challenge to their confidential treatment submitted under Delaware Chancery Court rules. KKR motioned to keep some of the information sealed, but Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster ruled against that effort. The trial for the merger lawsuit is currently scheduled for June.
