Promotion aggregator Alliance MMA Inc. apparently leaving the MMA space
“AMMA will transition out of its historical mixed martial arts business and will be operated by SCWorx executives in the healthcare data industry.”
Late in 2016, Alliance MMA Inc. (NASDAQ: AMMA) completed their IPO and began trading on NASDAQ; it was the only publicly traded company in the mixed martial arts space. Please note, this is not Eric Del Fierro’s famed Alliance MMA fight gym; it’s like Apple computer and Apple records, same name but unrelated companies. Alliance MMA Inc. was instead an attempt to create a minor league for MMA.
The group acquired a number of regional promotions including Hoosier Fight Club, Iron Tiger, Shogun Fights, SoCa Fights, V3Fights, and Victory Fighting in an attempt to bring economies of scale to the efforts. The aggregated promotions would ideally draw an international fanbase and major brand sponsorships, and develop the next generation of stars that would go on to the UFC and other top promotions.
Apparently, it has not worked out. The Twitter account is closed, and the remaining parts of the social network have been dormant since May. Now Seeking Alpha reports that the corporate shell is in the process of merging and changing businesses.
Alliance MMA has announced it has agreed to acquire SCWorx, a healthcare IT data services provider, for $50 million. SCWorx operates as a provider of data normalization, application interoperability and big data analytics within the healthcare provider market. AMMA will transition out of its historical mixed martial arts business and will be operated by SCWorx executives in the healthcare data industry. The firm will apply to change its name and ticker symbol upon completion of the merger. SCWorx management is headed by Founder and CEO Marc Schessel, who will serve as the CEO of the combined company.
A similar effort under the Elite Xtreme Combat/EliteXC/ProElite banner went bankrupt a decade ago.