Stocky Dana Helps Ring Opening Bell At NYSE

It’s all right, ‘cuz they’re saved by the bell.

Endeavor executives Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, alongside UFC President Dana White, were on hand this morning in “The Big Apple” to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, bringing the sports, media, and entertainment conglomerate public at $24 per share.

What a difference two years makes!

“I’ve never been a fan of the UFC going public,” White previously told 8 Las Vegas. “Can you picture me running a public company? No, I can’t either. Let’s take some bets on how long I’ll last in a public company. What’s the over-under on that one?”

Emanuel and Co. recently reorganized its portfolio to capture full ownership of UFC, which helped keep Endeavor afloat during last year’s global pandemic. For the first half of the year, a significant portion of media and entertainment companies were forced to shut down; however, UFC found a way to “beat the shit out of 2020.”

And collect this hefty payout in the process.

Endeavor, valued at over $6 billion, will open with 21.3 million shares of Class A common stock, worth about $511 million. An additional $1.8 billion is expected to be raised from institutional investors, according to MarketWatch.

Endeavor Group Holdings will trade as EDR.