Tony Khan submitted a formal bid to acquire WWE during the company's 2023 sale process, according to newly unredacted court filings first reported by Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and POST Wrestling.
Khan's bid came through Base 10, the entity he uses to operate All Elite Wrestling. The complaint — originally filed in the Delaware Chancery Court shareholder lawsuit in November 2023 and recently unredacted — confirms Base 10 was among four companies that submitted formal offers to acquire WWE following Vince McMahon's return to the company in January 2023.
Tony Khan's WWE Bid Was the Lowest of Four Offers
Base 10's offer of $76.83 per share valued WWE at approximately $6.9 billion. It was the lowest bid by a considerable margin. KKR offered between $90 and $97.50 per share ($8.0B–$8.7B valuation), while Liberty Media bid between $95 and $100 per share ($8.5B–$8.9B). Endeavor ultimately won with an all-stock deal valued at $95.66 per share before synergies, which led to the creation of TKO Group Holdings.
Per Thurston's reporting, the SEC filing noted that Base 10 indicated it would need equity and debt financing partners to complete a transaction, suggesting the bid lacked the financial backing of the other three offers. Base 10's bid did not advance to the data room stage, where the remaining three bidders were granted access to nonpublic WWE financial information.
How Tony Khan Was Identified as the Bidder
WWE's post-merger SEC filing had anonymized all bidders under pseudonyms. KKR was listed as "Financial Sponsor 1," Liberty Media as "Strategic Party 1," and Base 10 as "Strategic Party 2." While the bid prices were disclosed, the identities behind the pseudonyms were not — until now.
Florida business records independently confirm Khan's connection to Base 10. The company was incorporated in 2014 with Khan listed as sole officer, with its address at the stadium for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the NFL team his family owns. Khan declined to comment when reached by Thurston.
Shareholder Lawsuit Alleges Sale Was Rigged
The bid details emerged from the ongoing WWE shareholder lawsuit, in which plaintiffs allege the entire 2023 sale process was engineered by McMahon to ensure Endeavor won. Plaintiffs claim that because the competing all-cash bids — including Khan's — would have resulted in a full buyout of shareholders, they would have effectively removed McMahon from the wrestling industry entirely. Endeavor's structure preserved McMahon's role as executive chairman post-merger.
The lawsuit also alleges that McMahon, Nick Khan, and Paul Levesque destroyed evidence relevant to the merger, including auto-deleted Signal messages and handwritten notes. All defendants have denied the allegations.
For context, TKO shares currently trade at approximately $200, roughly doubling the per-share bid prices from 2023. The case is scheduled to go to trial in June 2026.
