WHEN: Today, June 6, 2023
WHERE: CNBC's "Squawk on the Street"
Following is the unofficial transcript of breaking news from CNBC's David Faber. Faber will speak with PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan & PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan about the announcement later this morning on "Squawk on the Street." Following is a link to the video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2023/06/06/pga-tour-agrees-to-merge-with-saudi-backed-rival-liv-golf.html
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
David Faber: Welcome back some interesting news in the world of golf that may resonate far beyond the to share with you this morning, the PGA Tour and its Saudi back competitor LIV Golf along with Europe's DP World Tour, have agreed to merge. The expectation here is to create a global entity for the game of golf. The agreement, by the way should point out not yet definitive it is currently a memorandum of understanding would end the hostility between LIV Golf and the PGA of course the two parties have been engaged in extensive litigation, and of course, a long history of sniping in the roughly two years since LIV Golf was created essentially by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund the PIF enormous fund that to help to put LIV Golf on the map that's all gone. Litigation, no longer the agreement does call in fact, for PIF that created LIV to invest significant capital in this new entity. The PGA by the way currently a non for profit is going to contribute its commercial businesses and its rights into what will be this new for profit company The hope is to include not just the European tour, but many if not all the other tours as well over time to create a global entity for golf. And of course, most importantly guys this is there's a number of different things that need to happen between this memorandum of understanding and getting to the definitive agreement, namely valuation of both PGAS businesses and by the way they haven't been running. It's not a for profit. It's got about 2 billion in revenues, and evaluation for LIV and then what additional capital will be needed there. In addition, over time, the expectation is that billions of dollars will come from the PIF into the new entity to help it develop new areas for the game of golf. But you both are familiar with of course what has been a nasty spat for quite some time and the players of course, who branched off some well known ones. LIV is run by Greg Norman, that all ends. In fact, it's very historic in terms of golf itself, with LIV and PGA merging.
Carl Quintanilla: It's amazing I mean, it just keeps coming back to all things sports, you have things sports related that the asset values in some of these areas are so tightly contained, but so dramatic
Faber: And the Saudis have shown a real willingness to want to invest in sports as a global entertainment product, with the expectation of course that they will be able to create a great deal of value for the fun. It's not just golf, obviously, it's whether it's their interest in F1, or WWE, or many soccer teams around the globe, Carl. Their interest overall with sports has been significant and they are stepping up big here. They ultimately would probably own the majority of the economics in this entity, however, the governance will be retained by the PGA. Yasir Al-Rumayyan I'll remind though the current governor of the PIF will be Chairman of the new entity.
Jim Cramer: I thought this was such bad blood. You chose one or the other. And that was it. And they hated you.
Faber: Yeah, not anymore. It's like the AFL and the NFL and the ABA and NBA coming together, right?
Cramer: It's incredible.
Faber: That's really kind of what you're talking about. Different formats to a certain extent for LIV in terms of teams and everything else that will be combined in here.
Cramer: Those of us who know people who were choosing. I mean, it was kind of like red coat versus blue coat.
Quintanilla: We had Norman in here not too long ago. Could be good to get him back.
Faber: I will also have an interview with Yasir Al-Rumayyan from PIF and Jay Monahan, the man who runs the PGA. So we've got that coming up for you.
Cramer: Terrific reporting.
Faber: Thank you.