BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. and MENLO PARK, Calif., Dec. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME), one of the world's leading talent, entertainment and media companies, and Silver Lake, a global leader in technology investing, today announced an agreement to acquire IMG Worldwide (IMG). The company is a market leader in college and professional sports, event management, client representation, fashion and multi-media rights management. 
 
 "IMG has incredible strategic value to WME. The brand's global reach, outstanding management team and leadership across sports, fashion and media are a strong complement to our business," said WME Co-CEOs Patrick Whitesell and Ariel Emanuel. "We are honored to build on the legacy of founder Mark McCormack and recent owner Ted Forstmann. Supported by Silver Lake's continued partnership, WME and IMG together will deliver a broad range of opportunities and resources to the companies and talent we collectively represent." 
 
 The combination of WME and IMG creates a unique global sports and entertainment platform, operating across North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. WME and IMG together will have an unparalleled client roster; a broad relationship base with sponsors, brands and broadcasters; and marquee assets in sports, events, film and television, and fashion. Patrick Whitesell and Ariel Emanuel will serve as Co-CEOs of the combined company. 
 
 "IMG is well positioned in large and expanding end markets, with significant and untapped potential for growth. We look forward to building on IMG's illustrious heritage by accelerating its existing growth plans and expanding the company's digital platform," said Egon Durban, Managing Partner of Silver Lake. "This investment extends our successful partnership with Ari, Patrick and the WME team as the company continues its transformation into an integrated player across the new media landscape." 
 
 The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Mubadala Development Company will be a minority investor in the transaction. 
 
 Silver Lake and WME were advised and financed by J.P. Morgan, Barclays, RBC Capital Markets and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and advised by The Raine Group, Dean Bradley Osborne, Lazard and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Evercore and Morgan Stanley served as the financial advisors to Forstmann Little. 
 
 About William Morris Endeavor Entertainment 
 
 WME is a leading entertainment and media company with an unparalleled client list of artists and content creators across film, television, music, literature, theatre and digital media. Led by an experienced and innovative management team, WME was formed by the 2009 merger of the William Morris Agency and Endeavor. The company has over 1,000 employees and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, with offices in New York, Nashville, London and Miami. Through its partner companies, including award-winning global creative agency Droga5, WME also provides clients with unique advertising, brand integration and marketing opportunities across traditional, social media, mobile and gaming platforms. 
 
 About Silver Lake 
 
 Silver Lake is a global leader in private investments in technology and technology-enabled industries. Silver Lake invests with the strategic and operational insights of an experienced industry participant. The firm has approximately 110 investment and value creation professionals located in New York, Menlo Park, San Mateo, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo and manages approximately $20 billion in combined assets under management. The Silver Lake Partners portfolio includes or has included technology and technology-enabled industry leaders such as Alibaba, Allyes, Ameritrade, Avago, Business Objects, Dell, Flextronics, Gartner, Gerson Lehrman Group, Global Blue, Go Daddy, Instinet, Intelsat, Interactive Data Corporation, MCI, Mercury Payment Systems, MultiPlan, the NASDAQ OMX Group, NetScout, NXP, Sabre, Seagate Technology, Skype, Spreadtrum, SunGard Data Systems, UGS, Vantage Data Centers, Virtu and William Morris Endeavor. For more information about Silver Lake and its entire portfolio, please visit www.silverlake.com. 
 
 Media Contacts: 
 
 WME 
 
 Christian Muirhead 
 
 (310) 859-4184 
 
 cmu@wmeentertainment.com 
 
 Silver Lake 
 
 Gemma Hart, Brunswick Group 
 
 (212) 333-3810 
 
 silverlake@brunswickgroup.com 
 
 SOURCE Silver Lake ||||| Miesha Tate is separated by Dana White from Amanda Nunes during the UFC 200 weigh-ins in Las Vegas, Friday, July 8, 2016. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Sun via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 Miesha Tate is separated by Dana White from Amanda Nunes during the UFC 200 weigh-ins in Las Vegas, Friday, July 8, 2016. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Sun via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 LOS ANGELES (AP) — The UFC has been sold for approximately $4 billion to a group led by Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG. 
 
 UFC President Dana White confirmed the sale of the mixed martial arts promotional company in text messages to The Associated Press on Sunday night. 
 
 WME co-CEO Ari Emanuel also announced the sale early Monday in an internal company email that included SNTV — a joint venture between The Associated Press and IMG. 
 
 "We've been honored to have UFC and a number of its athletes as clients and couldn't be happier to take our relationship to this next level as the organization's owner and operating partner," Emanuel said. 
 
 White will stay on to run the UFC, which has grown from a money-losing promotion in a minor sport into a global entertainment brand. UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta have tapped out of the company after nearly 16 years, although they'll retain a minority interest. The Abu Dhabi government still owns 10 percent of the UFC as well. 
 
 The New York Times first reported the completion of the long-rumored deal. It has financial backing from private equity firms Silver Lake Partners, which owns WME-IMG, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, along with the investment firm of billionaire Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers. 
 
 "UFC has experienced tremendous growth over the last decade and we are looking forward to helping the organization and its athletes identify new opportunities to develop and further establish their global footprint," Emanuel said. 
 
 The UFC was founded in 1993 as the Ultimate Fighting Championship, staging violent fights that were banned or unregulated in many areas. The Fertitta brothers and White, their high school friend, purchased the promotion for $2 million in 2001. 
 
 With White as the promotional face and Lorenzo Fertitta as its chairman, the Las Vegas-based UFC was kept afloat by the Fertittas' casino fortune while the sport once labeled by John McCain as "human cockfighting" gradually gained widespread acceptance and popularity. 
 
 The UFC used cable television and the internet to get its intriguing product in front of young fans, and they also sought legitimacy by welcoming regulation by athletic commissions. New York finally lifted its ban on MMA earlier this year, putting the sport in all 50 states. 
 
 After helping Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz become stars who straddled the line between sports and entertainment, the promotion now boasts a stable of elite athletes with mainstream fame, including Conor McGregor, Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey, who is represented by WME. 
 
 Although the UFC has received occasional criticism from fighters for its pay scale, its ability to control talent costs is a major factor in its profitability. Its position atop MMA also allows it to match the sport's top fighters against each other consistently, setting it apart from the hopelessly fractured world of boxing. 
 
 The UFC's price tag has drawn gasps since it was first rumored earlier this year, but the consortium is getting a sports property with a unique niche and ample growth potential. 
 
 WME purchased IMG, the sports and event management group, in 2013, and the talent agency has evolved into a multifaceted entertainment company. The organization already made moves into niche sports properties last year by buying Professional Bull Riders and forming an e-sports gaming league with Turner Broadcasting. 
 
 With more than 500 athletes under contract, the UFC stages roughly 40 events per year and is broadcast in more than 150 countries, reaching 1.1 billion television households. The promotion has built a large roster of endorsement deals and sponsorships, and its subsidiary ventures include everything from a digital streaming service to more than 100 branded fitness centers. 
 
 The UFC also recently began construction in Las Vegas on a 180,000-square-foot, campus-style corporate headquarters that also will house training and rehabilitation facilities for its fighters. 
 
 The UFC appears regularly on Fox under its seven-year broadcast deal, which ends in 2018. The next contract is expected to be extraordinarily lucrative. 
 
 On Saturday night, the promotion staged the landmark UFC 200 show in its hometown. The event drew 18,202 fans to T-Mobile Arena and took in $10.8 million in ticket sales, both Nevada records for the company. ||||| Las Vegas-based UFC, a mixed-martial arts empire, has been sold for $4 billion; and this time, it's for real. 
 
 Stories about a possible sale have surfaced for the last two months, but each time the purported deals collapsed. However, this time, 8 News Now has learned, the papers were signed on Saturday. 
 
 The price tag makes this the largest single deal in the history of sports, according to sources close to the situation. 
 
 Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, the brothers who own 80% of UFC, originally purchased the sports network for $2 million. The Fertittas will retain a small percentage in the new ownership group. 
 
 The new owners include an alphabet-soup partnership of WME (William Morris Endeavor), the internationally known talent agency, IMG (International Management Group) a global sports and entertainment company based in New York, and MSD, a private equity group headed by Michael Dell. Also involved as a strategic partner is KKR, a global investment firm. 
 
 According to persons familiar with the deal, Lorenzo Fertitta will remain as chairman of UFC for 6-8 weeks during the transition but will step down after that. UFC president Dana White, who currently owns 9% of the organization, will continue in his role with UFC and will have a smaller ownership stake. 
 
 A full announcement is expected early Monday morning.
– What do Oprah Winfrey and Maria Sharapova have in common? Soon, they could both be represented by the same company. Hollywood talent titan William Morris Endeavor Entertainment has reached a deal to buy the massive sports agency IMG Worldwide, the companies announced today. "IMG has incredible strategic value," WME's co-CEOs said in a statement. IMG's "leadership across sports, fashion, and media are a strong complement to our business." WME, and its private equity partner Silver Lake, will pay about $2.4 billion, sources tell the Wall Street Journal, beating out a bid from another private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners, for about $2 billion. The deal is in part a sign that movie stars aren't what they used to be, the Journal explains; Hollywood agencies are diversifying in part because contracts for A-list stars have fallen off significantly. The fall of sitcoms and rise of original cable shows have also cut into once massive syndication revenues.