Zuffa

TKO Operating Company, LLC (TKO OpCo), also doing business as Zuffa, is an American sports promotion company specializing in mixed martial arts. It was founded in January 2001 in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Station Casinos executives Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta to be the parent entity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) after they purchased it from the Semaphore Entertainment Group.

Zuffa was acquired in 2016 by a group led by WME-IMG (later Endeavor) including Silver Lake Partners, KKR, and MSD Capital for the price of $4.025 billion.[1] After the Endeavor deal closed, the Zuffa logo and brand were retired from on-air usage in favor of the UFC brand, but Zuffa was retained as the legal name of the company.

In April 2023, Endeavor announced that UFC would merge with the professional wrestling promotion WWE to form TKO Group Holdings, a new public company majority-owned by Endeavor, replacing Zuffa as parent entity of the UFC. Vince McMahon was appointed as an executive chairman of the new entity, and White remained as UFC president. The merger was completed on September 12, 2023.

Sale to Endeavor and merger with WWE

Around May 11, 2016, ESPN's Darren Rovell reported that Goldman Sachs was helping Zuffa set up a sale of its majority ownership to one of four bidders at a speculated price range between $3.5 billion to $4 billion.[21] Immediately after Rovell reported this, UFC President Dana White went on The Dan Patrick Show and denied that the UFC was up for sale, claiming that Zuffa was more focused on "working on deals and our expansion globally" than selling the promotion. However, White would further add that Zuffa would be listening to offers if they met the reported $4 billion.[22] Despite White's denial of a potential sale, Dave Meltzer of SB Nation's mmafighting.com reported a month later that the sale of the UFC was imminent, as Zuffa received two bids within the range of $3.9 billion to $4.2 billion from both WME-IMG, the events and China Media Capital.[23]

Finally, on July 11, after months of speculation, the UFC released a statement confirming that Zuffa had sold its majority stake to an ownership group headed by WME-IMG for $4.2 billion.[24] ESPN's Darren Rovell and Brett Okamoto would go on further to report that, despite the sale to WME-IMG, Dana White would be staying on with the UFC as President and would "be given a stake in the new business." They would also add that the Abu Dhabi-based Flash Entertainment would still maintain its 10 percent stake in the company.[1] In 2017, WME-IMG reorganized as Endeavor.[25] On April 29, 2021, Endeavor launched an initial public offering (IPO) and became a publicly traded company listed on New York Stock Exchange.[26] Endeavor subsequently used some of the proceeds from the IPO to buy out Zuffa's other shareholders at a value of $1.7 billion, making Zuffa a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor.[27]

From the start of 2023, professional wrestling promotion WWE began exploring a potential sale of the company, amidst an employee misconduct scandal involving its owner Vince McMahon that had prompted him to step down as chairman and CEO, although he returned as executive chairman.[28] In April 2023, Endeavor and WWE announced a merger to form TKO Group Holdings, a new public company majority-owned by Endeavor, with McMahon serving as executive chairman of the new entity, Nick Khan becoming president of WWE, and Dana White maintaining his position as president of the UFC. The merger was completed on September 12, 2023.[29]

trading name	Zuffa
former names	Zuffa, LLC (2001–2023)
type	Subsidiary
founders	Frank Fertitta III Lorenzo Fertitta
key people	Ari Emanuel (CEO – Endeavor) Dana White (CEO and president – UFC)
industry	Sports promotion
owner	TKO Group Holdings
parent	Endeavor
subsid	Ultimate Fighting Championship (2001) World Fighting Alliance (2006) Pride Fighting Championships (2007) World Extreme Cagefighting (2010) Strikeforce (2013)
location city	Las Vegas, Nevada
location country	United States

Relationship with other organizations

Flash Entertainment

Ubisoft

Lone Survivor Foundation

Cleveland Clinic

Sale to Endeavor and merger with WWE

References