Strikeforce Acquisition a Key Cog in the Global Expansion Plans of the UFC [Updated]

Dana White officially announces the purchase of Strikeforce by Zuffa

 

This is great news for MMA fans! It may take some time, but this acquisition should eventually lead to some interesting match ups and, more importantly, help to ensure that the best fighters in the world will always be able to fight one another.

Time will tell, but from a business standpoint I see this acquisition as exactly what the UFC needs in order to make a push into new global markets. Zuffa has been faced with a very common problem for successful businesses: how do we grow without eroding the success that we currently enjoy? With two separate promotions at their disposal, Zuffa can now push forward into new markets with Strikeforce while maintaining their strong hold with the UFC in North America.

 ESPN Contributor John Gross fills in some of the details of the acquisition

Below, I've attempted to capture the current state of Zuffa, llc (including Flash Entertainment who owns a 10% slice of the pie)  within a single graphic. The key takeaway is that there is not much in the way of major competition out there for the UFC anymore.  More importantly, Zuffa appears to be positioning themselves for an aggressive global expansion. With two major promotional brands, key cross promotional relationships, and a growing MMA fight library I like their chances for success. 

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Video Submission as Finalist for the Weatherhead School 'Outstanding Marketing Student Award'

Recently, I was notified by the Marketing department of my school that I have been selected as a finalist being considered for the 'Outstanding Marketing MBA Student Award!'

Specifically I was told:

Marketing faculty has chosen you in recognizing your fine academic performance as well as your interest and dedication to the field of marketing among all the graduating MBA students this year.

They further explained the next steps in the process:

To help the marketing faculty learn more about your accomplishments and intentions, we ask that you...submit a video version of the application that helps us highlight and showcase you on the department website. The video should be no more than 2 minutes. This is the next step in determining a winner of this award. Your application will assist us in selecting the most deserving finalist for the award!

As you can imagine I am both excited and humbled by my selection as a finalist for this award. It's an awesome opportunity and I want to make the most of it. As a result, I've decided to post my video submission on this blog where I can easily share it with friends and family. I hope you have as much fun watching the video as I did making it. Enjoy!

Lorenzo Fertitta Talks Business on 'Fighting Words with Mike Straka'

I stumbled upon this video courtesy of HDNet and was struck by the candor of Lorenzo Fertitta and by his obvious passion for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. He touches on some very important and interesting business topics as they relate to his job as Co-owner and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Enjoy!

 Fighting Words with Mike Straka - Lorenzo Fertitta Interview

 

 Lorenzo  Fertitta: Me and my brother are 50 – 50 partners on everything we do…and when we started drafting the partnership agreement…the lawyers came to me and said: ‘What if you and Frank can’t agree?” I’m like, we always agree…we’ll figure it out, we’re brothers. They go, no legally we kind of have to have some dispute resolution in there…so we kind of came up with this concept, thought it would be funny but it’s true.  3 Five minute round – sport jujitsu - Dana’s the Referee, but we use the point system.