The reports emerged after ESPN’s Darren Rovell wrote Wednesday that White and the Fertitta brothers, Lorenzo and Frank who own 80% of the company, were nearing a sale.
Rovell claimed that at least four bidders were in the mix, including WME/IMG, China Media Capital, The Blackstone Group and Dalian Wanda Group.
The ESPN article went on to say that any sale would be in the region of $3.5 billion and $4 billion, according to “multiple sources with knowledge of the negotiations”.
But White quickly denied any such deal being in the making, telling Yahoo Sports; “we are not for sale.”
Abu Dhabi group Flash Entertainment bought a ten per cent stake in the company in 2010, with White’s share dropping to 9 per cent ownership and the Fertitta brothers to 40.5 each.
Goldman Sachs determined that last year’s UFC earnings were between $200-250 million with that figure expected to be doubled when the new TV rights deal comes into play in 2019.
LOL: @danawhite says UFC is not for sale and that I'm not a "fan of facts." We had 5 independent sources on this pic.twitter.com/ST17klo1XK
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 11, 2016
