Dana White told TMZ Sports that the Wednesday before Kobe Bryant tragically died in a helicopter crash, he received his distribution for 2019 for being an investor in the UFC. It appears that we are learning more about that dividend paid out as the New York Post was the first to report the payouts to its investors. It also reveals a lot more about the company operations.
On Thursday night, The New York Post reported that the UFC approved a $300 million dividend to pay out to its investors. Endeavor will receive half of the $300 million. The company that purchased the UFC for approximately $4 billion owns a 50% stake in the promotion.
Sources from the Post noted that celebrities Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Gisele Bündchen, Ben Affleck and tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams will receive dividends. Wahlberg will receive a reported $500,000 while Bundchen will obtain $145,000. Dana White and Ari Emmanuel will receive $3 million each from the dividend.
Private equity companies, KKR and Silver Lake, which backed the sale of the company and own a 42% stake.
According to The Post, the distribution is uncommon as it is essentially taking its profits and rather than reinvesting the revenue or paying off debt, it is distributing the funds.
Via The New York Post:
Sources tell The Post UFC’s fighters cost the Las Vegas promotions company less than $150 million last year — or under 16 percent of its $900 million in revenue. By contrast, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Football League all share between 48 percent and 50 percent of revenues with their players, data shows.
The obvious difference between the UFC contracted athletes and the NBA and NFL is the former’s lack of a collective bargaining unit.
Payout Perspective:
MPO will have more on this in the coming days but with a heavy debt load (albeit structured) cashing out its investors seems like an unwise business decision. But if you were to think about this in terms of how they raised the money, it would seem that concessions were made for investing in the UFC, that they would be the first to cash out. So even if there is a high debt load from the company, it would issue a dividend to its investors instead of addressing the debt capacity and/or distributing to its contracted athletes. White stated to TMZ Sports that 2019 was the best year for the UFC so the payout is high for investors. Can the UFC continue to ascend in revenue in 2020? With Conor McGregor back, the prospects look good. The question will be what the UFC will due with the additional money.
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