Back in 2016 the Fertitta brothers shook up the MMA world with the news that they had sold the Ultimate Fighting Championship for a whopping $4.3 billion. The buyers represented several investment oriented companies, with the majority stake going to the the William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (also known simply as Endeavor or WME-IMG) talent agency. Two other investment groups, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Silver Lake each took on a 22.9% share in the promotion.
As Endeavor attempts to hit the stock market with their second attempted IPO, however, it appears that a major part of their plan to make a successful launch this time around includes full ownership of the UFC.