At Liberty Media, Formula 1 is no longer enough. According to the Financial Times, the company headed by billionaire John Malone is reportedly negotiating to buy the company that owns MotoGP. This would be an operation worth approximately 4 billion euros. Liberty Media would therefore be on the verge of taking over Dorna Sports that he would have rejected the offer of TKO, the sports and entertainment group managed by Ari Emanuel.
Qatar Sports Investments, which owns the French football club Paris Saint-Germain, has reportedly also been in discussions with Bridgepoint, the private equity firm that controls Dorna (it owns around 40% of the company), about a possible takeover. Speaking of Dorna’s shareholder structure, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is the company’s second largest shareholder (39%).
Bridgepoint had purchased the company in 2006 for a value of 550 million euros. CPPIB acquired its stake in Dorna from Bridgepoint in 2012. Shareholders also include some management figures including Carmelo Ezpeleta.
If the operation were to go through, Liberty Media would put two of the most important motorsport series in the world under the same umbrella. According to what has emerged, the negotiations are at an advanced stage and an announcement could arrive as early as the next few weeks.
In reality, there had already been talk in the past of Liberty Media’s possible interest in the world championship. The eventual agreement, however, will certainly have to overcome the Antitrust obstacle. Indeed, doubts could be raised about the possible monopoly at the European Union level.
According to James Killick, competition lawyer at White & Case, the history of F1 and MotoGP and the size of a potential combined group make competition investigations “quite likely”, both in countries such as the UK and Germany, and at European level.
We therefore just have to wait to understand if Liberty Media will actually try to get its hands on MotoGP.
