WWE has been sold for approximately $5 billion to Walt Disney Company ahead of the company's biggest event WrestleMania 34 next weekend. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon confirmed the sale of World Wrestling Entertainment to The Associated Press on Sunday.

Vince McMahon will stay on to run the WWE, which has grown into a highly successful global entertainment brand over the last 30 years under his leadership.

“No other entertainment company compares to WWE,” McMahon said in a statement that stated he would keep his current role. “Our goal has always been to put on the biggest and the best sports entertainment for our fans and to make this one of the biggest entertainment brands in the world. I’m looking forward to working with Walt Disney Co to take WWE into a new era.”

Vincent K. McMahon, and his wife Linda, established Titan Sports, Inc., in 1979. The company was incorporated on February 21, 1980, in the Cape Cod Coliseum offices. McMahon Jr. bought Capitol from his father in 1982, effectively seizing control of the company. Seeking to make the WWE(F) the premier wrestling promotion in the country, and eventually, the world, he began an expansion process that fundamentally changed the wrestling business throughout the 1980s, 1990s and eventually floating the company on the stock market in the early 2000s.

Click here to read the full WWE statement on the sale of the company and key managerial changes.

A press conference on the sale is expected as soon as Monday, we'll keep you updated.

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