After weeks of speculations and denials the UFC will announce it’s sale for no less than 4 billion dollars.
According to Lasvegasnow – UFC, which is Las Vegas based has been sold and it’s 100% for real.
The huge pricetag makes this one of the biggest sales in all of sports history. Fertitta brothers stand to gain an enormous sum given how they initially purchased the then struggling championship for only 2 million $. Reportedly, Fertittas will retain a small percentage in the ownership group – contrary to prior reports that UFC bill be sold as a whole. UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta conducted an interview on Sunday night reportedly confirming the sale with the channel 8 news station in Las Vegas. The interview is expected to run early Monday morning.
New owners are an alphabet soup of partnerships including William Morris Endeavor, International Management Group and MSD (which is private equiti group) and a global investment firm KKR.
Hollywood powerhouse agent Ari Emanuel is one of the co-chairs of a group WME-IMG. If you haven’t heard about him before it would serve you to know he’s the man that inspired famous satiric rants of Ari Gold, fictional Hollywood agent from “Entourage”. Ari’s brother, Rahm Emanuel was also Obama’s Chief of Staff.
It’s expected Fertitta will remain as chairmen in the transition period of about 6 to 8 weeks. Dana White will continue in his role but he’s expected to have a smaller ownership stake.
As predicted, the full announcement will be coming in a post UFC 200 world, most likely Monday morning.
White recently tweeted a a plain smiley face although it’s not entirely sure what this is regarding. Either way, he’s about to become a much wealthier man!
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— Dana White (@danawhite) July 11, 2016
