Penny stock International Fight League (IFLI) has seen better days. In early 2007, as the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) soared in popularity, the upstart IFL piggybacked on the success of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and saw its stock climb to over $15 (and its market cap sky-rocket to $1 billion).
Now the IFL is a shadow of its former self, a true ($0.01) penny stock. However, yesterday the stock saw incredible volume (3.48 million) and shot up 33.33% on rumors it was going to be taken over by the UFC.
The privately-held UFC is no stranger to buying out its competition. Its acquisition targets in the past have included PRIDE Fighting Championships (a reportedly $65 million deal), the World Fighting Alliance, and World Extreme Cagefighting.
The key drivers behind this buyout by the UFC would be:
- the IFL film library (which includes 400+ fights)
- IFL fighter contracts (although not all may be transferable)
- cheap price (the market cap of the IFL currently sits just over $1 million and the rumors swirling around have the UFC buying the company for even less than that)
While other fight organizations have been mentioned as potential buyers, the UFC is the only company with sufficient scale for a purchase to truly make sense. So don't expect a bidding war, especially over an asset that no one is really that excited about.
*UPDATE: On Friday, the stock was up another 21.43% to $0.017. We haven't seen any new news, but we'll keep you posted.
