Ever since the UFC was purchased for around $4 billion by a group led by WME-IMG, there have been questions as to how they plan to recoup that investment. According to a report by Steven Marrocco and Ben Fowlkes, the answer for the immediate future is an increase in licensing fees and cost-cutting, with the recent layoffs just being part of it.
WME-IMG’s purchase of the UFC was partly financed through loans arranged by Goldman Sachs. The debt load as reported on August 3 of this year was $1.8 billion split between a $1.