The UFC has been sold for around a whopping $4 billion to entertainment and sports talent agency WME/IMG.
via NYT:
The league, which promotes mixed martial arts, is expected to announce as soon as Monday that it has sold itself to a group led by the talent giant WME-IMG for about $4 billion, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Backing the deal are the private equityheavyweights Silver Lake, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and the investment firm of the billionaire Michael S. Dell.
The deal highlights the power and reach of the 23-year-old U.F.C., whose fights are now shown in more than 156 countries and take place in all 50 states, and which claims millennials as some 45 percent of its audience.
For its new owners, the league represents a prime source of content, particularly in the digital arena. Beyond its headline fights, which the company asserts are the best-selling events on pay-per-view TV, U.F.C. over all generates roughly 2,000 hours’ worth of material each year, much of it available on its Fight Pass streaming service.
The transaction comes just as U.F.C. concluded its latest series of fights, perhaps the biggest in the organization’s history. (The event, U.F.C. 200, drew more than 18,000 fans to Las Vegas but was marred by some controversy, including the absence of stars like Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor and Jon Jones, the last of whom was removed after testing positive for an undisclosed substance.
It will be a windfall for U.F.C.’s primary owners, the longtime casino entrepreneurs Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, though they will stay on as minority investors.
The brothers bought U.F.C. in 2000 for just $2 million at a low point for the league, after the promoter spent years and millions of dollars battling to win approval from state athletic commissions.
$4 BILLION though?
