IFLI Up 385%

I don’t know what happened today with this stock. International Fight League (IFLI) shot up 385% today on no news that I can find. Volume of 1,760,815.

There was some inside trades – options awarded to executives – but this rise indicates buying not selling.

Their website – ifl.tv – doesn’t even load anymore and Wikipedia says the league “closed” on July 31, 2008.

Wikipedia does say that the IFL might be bought by the UFC. So I looked into it.

The story came from rumors printed all over the net (read here and here). The UFC didn’t end up buying the IFL though, and the league filed bankruptcy September 17th, 2008.

THEN – Mark Cuban bought the assets of the IFL on around October 20th, 2008 for $650,000. This includes “all intellectual property, including the IFL’s film, video, and image library; its five-roped competition ring and team trademarks; and proprietary rights, including its Web site. The transaction also includes any remaining broadcast contracts the IFL acquired during its two-year tenure, which includes a deal with FOX Sports Network”.

Mark Cuban, who’s HDNet sports network was one of the few major networks to carry the IFL, was an early believer in the league. He has the money and the resources to make the IFL work.

So it looks like its back on for the IFL. If Cuban put his money down then there’s probably some serious gains on the way.