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. 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. 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.
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. 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. In 2017, WME-IMG reorganized as Endeavor. On April 29, 2021, Endeavor launched an initial public offering (IPO) and became a publicly traded company listed on New York Stock Exchange. 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.
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. 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.
