F1 Owner Liberty Media Announce Purchase Of Dorna, Subject To Approval

By David Emmett |

Widely rumored, and now official. Today, April 1st, 2024, Liberty Media announced they have acquired 86% of the shares in Dorna S.L., the company which owns the rights to the MotoGP and WorldSBK world championships, as well as other series.

The announcement means that Liberty have bought out both Bridgepoint Capital and the Canadian pension fund CPPIB. But they also appear to have acquired a small part of the shares held by senior Dorna staff.

The details of the purchase can be broken down as follows:

  • Dorna will continue to run MotoGP and WorldSBK as an independent company inside the wider Liberty Media Formula One Group tracking stock. That tracking stock is a separate investment vehicle allowing investors to directly invest in Liberty Media's motorsports arm.
  • Carmelo Ezpeleta will remain as CEO, and continue to run the company. Dorna will continue to be headquartered in Madrid, Spain.
  • The  company as a whole is valued at €4.2 billion, slightly up on the €4 billion previously rumored. Liberty Media's stake is valued at €3.5 billion.
  • The press release includes a clear statement that the acquisition is subject to approval by various regulatory bodies around the world. This is a reference to the last time that a company, CVC, wanted to purchase both MotoGP and F1 in 2006. That deal fell through after the EU Competition Commission ruled that having the TV broadcast rights for both F1 and MotoGP held by the same company would put too much market power in the hands of one company.

Liberty Media will be holding an investor call on the acquisition later in the day. More analysis of the deal will follow after that.

The official Dorna press release appears below:

Liberty Media announces acquisition of MotoGP™
Acquisition of world’s leading motorcycle racing championship expands Liberty Media’s portfolio of high-quality global sports assets

Monday, 01 April 2024

Liberty Media Corporation has announced an agreement to acquire MotoGP™. MotoGP™ is the pinnacle of two wheels, with 22 of the fastest riders competing on purpose-built prototype motorcycles on some of the world’s greatest racetracks, reaching top speeds above 360 kilometers per hour/223 miles per hour. From the first season in 1949 that staged six rounds across Europe, the sport has grown to comprise more than 20 Grands Prix across five continents, with the television broadcast reaching hundreds of millions around the world.

This new agreement will see Dorna Sports S.L., the exclusive commercial and television rights holder of MotoGP™, remain an independently run company attributed to Liberty Media’s Formula One Group tracking stock. Carmelo Ezpeleta, who has been CEO since 1994, will remain in his position and continue to run the business with his management team. The business will remain based in Madrid.

Dorna also holds exclusive rights to other motorcycle racing series, including MotoGP™ feeder series Moto2™ and Moto3™, the FIM Enel MotoE™ World Championship, the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship and the new FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship.

Liberty Media will acquire approximately 86% of Dorna, with Dorna management retaining approximately 14% of their equity in the business. The transaction reflects an enterprise value for Dorna/MotoGP™ of €4.2 billion and an equity value of €3.5 billion, with MotoGP's™ existing debt balance expected to remain in place after close.

"We are thrilled to expand our portfolio of leading live sports and entertainment assets with the acquisition of MotoGP," said Greg Maffei, Liberty Media President and CEO. "MotoGP is a global league with a loyal, enthusiastic fan base, captivating racing and a highly cash flow generative financial profile. Carmelo and his management team have built a great sporting spectacle that we can expand to a wider global audience. The business has significant upside, and we intend to grow the sport for MotoGP fans, teams, commercial partners and our shareholders."

"This is the perfect next step in the evolution of MotoGP, and we are excited for what this milestone brings to Dorna, the MotoGP paddock and racing fans," said Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna. "We are proud of the global sport we’ve grown, and this transaction is a testament to the value of the sport today and its growth potential. Liberty has an incredible track record in developing sports assets and we could not wish for a better partner to expand MotoGP’s fanbase around the world."

The acquisition is expected to be completed by year-end 2024 and is subject to the receipt of clearances and approvals by competition and foreign investment law authorities in various jurisdictions.

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Comments

...here's a link to essentially the same press release on Pitpass, a very good F1 website. Nothing really different in the news, but of note is the tone of the editor and comments below the article, which are much more pessimistic than the comments in the unofficial announcement thread on this site. From F1's side (at least the Pitpass regulars), there's not a lot of hope based on what Liberty Media has "accomplished" with F1.


https://www.pitpass.com/77325/Liberty-Media-to-buy-MotoGP

Liberty’s full statement talked about little change and how great the sport is currently. There was also this statement.

“Our goal is to open that up to a broader audience and open it up to a broader set of commercial partners of all flavours. And I think those go hand in hand.”


It’s hard to see the scenario where that’s compatible in our times with anything but radical change. For instance, GP racing doesn’t belong on the Vegas Strip and that would be radical change. There are many positive potentials besides that kind of exhibition, but those are still big changes. 

Seriously DE, you'll have to do better than this next year /s

Guess it's what we all feared might happen. At least they can't push a bunch of shitty street circuits on us, right???

Considered it April's fool at first but now it seems to be serious. It looks like everyone involved thinks it is a fair deal, with an extraordinary revenue for the former investors and the incoming owners assess MotoGP as a valuable and exiting brand. From what i understand, F1 teams now have a thriving business and no team is short on money, even more so there are manufacturers on the bench waiting to join. I guess there are many players now - manufacturers/teamowners who will recalculate the business risks for entering MotoGP.

I remember an interview just two weeks ago with the new CEO of BMW Motorcycles Markus Flasch saying ... "we belong to MotoGP" ... which was widely covered in most of german speaking media outlets.

KTM/Pierer aquired the majority of MV Agusta just three weeks ago and on TV coverage of the portugese GP on austrian ServusTV, the commentators jokingly asked the KTM suits ... "when will MV Agusta be on the grid" ... guess what - there were only weak denials from the KTM brass.

Will Liberty just apply the same businessmodel they put on F1? A simple carboncopy of "drive to survive" didn't work out, or are there any other ideas floating around. It took quite a while for sprint races to accommodate within MotoGP.

How will the sporting aspects be handled, i guess this will be the big questionmark that everyone is wary about.

Will Liberty or Dorna - or whoever is in charge - be willing to change the "undesireable consequences" of the actual rulebooks, or will the technical regulation be subjected to dictate of marketing and coverage ?

If they can turn F1 into a success, they have no need to worry about the sporting side of MotoGP because in that respect, MotoGP is starting from a much much higher level. Get rid of excessive levels of Aero ? Why ? It still has racing way beyond anything F1 produces and that's a success. Also, the excessive aero gives MotoGP a distinctly different image from WSBK. If...if they can work similar miracles with MotoGP, one motivation to fix the bikes (if you are of the opinion they need fixing) is gone. It might even be an advantage to make them even more 'alien'.

I still hope the media side improves though. 

They must be good, really good. How on earth is it possible to get people to watch an F1 race ? Test Cricket...at least things happen. 

Horribly fantastic news.

How to grow the sport beyond the core motonutterers? Drama. Personal drama. Then the actual racing becomes a sideshow. If there isn't enough personal drama happening, create some. Build the drama and the gawking spectators will come.

And by gawking spectators, you will be getting bait-clicking, TMZ bookmarked, US Market who will only care about who's f***ing who and who's getting fat and perhaps the occasional 30sec highlight clip of the sport itself. Unfortunately for us, expect more scenes like the Valeban pouring out of Mugello mid-race after Rossi goes down early. More culty tribalism and less sport purism is the key to that market, and is exactly why they hired ex-NBA media boss Dan Rossomondo last year. 

Under him, the NBA has been reduced to 15sec clips on social media, targeted at pre/early-teenagers. The earlier you create a divided market, the longer you will profit from them. They push sports gambling (of which the NBA itself takes a percentage) flat-stick which has made the fanbases even more toxic. The refereeing is -clearly- corrupt when dealing with large market teams - with court cases and convictions to support that claim. And now after years of turning the sport into an isolation one-on-one yawn fest, the US players are now getting tooled up by low-athleticism Euros that actually learn to play the game and it's fundamentals from a young age.

I have zero faith that Dan Rossomondo will lead this sport anywhere close to what most mutterers would prefer. Zero.

and leave the sausage to be quite bland and unappetising. It’s been said above but we on here all know the night and day difference between riding an average bike to driving an average car, but for those who don’t ride bikes, they believe their excitement nirvana peaks with something like F1 and many are totally fine associating themselves with the oh-so glamorous sizzle over the sausage and brag about paying a premium to do so. Back at the turn of the 20th century the world’s first purpose built circuit, Brooklands, started with trying to attract the cream to watch cars “The right crowd & no crowding” before reluctantly accepting that the ‘great unwashed’ and less refined motorcycle crowd brought more excitement and revenue. T’was ever thus and I still believe there are many social climbers who will (want to), believe watching F1 is above MotoGP, or any other comparable two wheel v four wheel equivalent and suits their more refined ‘stance’ - or status anxiety, whichever smells more expensive. 

I am terrified, yet fascinated to see what they will do, because they have steered their F1 audience away from the (dire) track action and sold the reality show-it’s clearly working. I’ve been in sales/marketing all my career and continue to be astonished and impressed at how the same seat in the Becketts grandstand at Silverstone (2021), can be £126 for MotoGP yet £360 for F1, which sold out way quicker..

My hope is that they KNOW how good the track action is, jeez just watching a bike and rider shift into a thousand different shapes per lap while the F1 car looks the same every lap with an anonymous helmet peeking out should inform the neutral; and the in-car cameras seem more PlayStation than sensation. Millionaire marina locations with twenty foot high fences encasing a totally faceless ‘circuit’ looks a duplicated disaster to us but irresistibly glamorous to the types that feel the need to chat race strategies and Dubai-esque  locations in rarified and exalted company: I guess it can be fairly intoxicating..

They will have to be pretty creative to substantially increase the viewing figures, because it’s got to be almost a brand new demographic that didn’t know or initially care about MotoGP until a Liberty-created experience blew them away; though that audience can’t be the F1 ‘style over substance’ clique as they can’t afford to drain one to the other. 

If they do know where these extra markets are coming from then be sure of one thing, you won’t be paying less than £200 for BOTH very good seats in Jerez and Valencia as I did this year and it might not be quite as natural any more to turn to that stranger next to you and start chattering away about the latest helmet design, they might not share your enthusiasm quite that much. 

 That’ll be the mainstream then..

-As I mentioned previously, hopefully this will mean more North American races.

-The Athletic, which covers F1 but not motogp in the U.S., ran a story on the Liberty acquisition this morning. The F1 fans who commented were about 60% negative (keep in mind that folks who comment on the Athletic are at least 60% negative about everything). The summary was that Liberty sold the sizzle not the steak, and that all the new fans and high rollers were pricing them out (as funsize points out). "Beyond marketing, they have no investment in the sport, it could be ferret racing" was an example.

-Financial stability is really important! We're down to five manu's and the Japanese aren't looking that great right now. An investment of a few billion should mean the new owners will invest and support.

-Likewise marketing is really important! Dorna was bad at marketing. They seemed to focus on preaching to the converted as they made TV deals that walled off the sport from casual viewers and new fans. (I'll give Rossomondo a pass for now)

-Finally, I give Wavey the prize for best comment so far:  "They must be really good..."  I'm still laughing in agreement!

They already have too many races. If the US gets another race it will be at the expense of some other event on the calendar. I'd sure like to see Indy come back, though. Great place to spectate and they even have good food! Meanwhile I'm bringing 2 RV's and 5 family members to COTA. Leaving Scottsdale the 9th.

There's a much fuller analysis of the deal up now, which you can find here.

I listened to the investor call so you didn't have to. But it was quite interesting. I was left much more optimistic about it. They are basically happy to let Dorna run the series, but want to use their marketing and promotional knowledge to expand the market. They explicitly said several times no street races (for obvious reasons). But they are a better fit than Bridgepoint, who were just an extractive private equity firm.

I think older fans will be annoyed at an influx of young fans with a different focus. But that is very much the way of the world anyway. And having young people discover the sport is the only thing that will keep the sport alive into the future. 

They announced significant changes today. Actors, rap "musicians," attractive "influencers" and middle eastern "Princes" get free pit access and first consideration for public facing positions. This creates interest and clicks.

The grid will now be reverse order of Q, sandbagging welcomed. It is seen as exciting when the fastest and slowest overtake!

Marini/Honda is guaranteed pole after the ink is dried, and the paint swapping is akin to a Roman gladiator pit.

More interesting is that WSBK is now to be an Open class. Electric bikes, turbo bikes, 2 strokes too. As long as you run the Pirelli spec tire, the class is to be truly open.

Jorge Lorenzo has agreed to Wildcard for Yamaha, but in WSBK on a hydrogen powered V4 R1.

April 1st has 3 more hrs here, so going to get the latest updates. Did you know that Marc Marquez ALREADY won the COTA race? Realizing we live in a simulation, one can just do spoilers with a sufficiently flush Crypto wallet or oil rich nation to Tyrant.

I dined with those in the know today. Marc already wins COTA. Sorry for the spoiler!

Hiya Krop! 

“And having young people discover the sport is the only thing that will keep the sport alive into the future.”


I’ve earn my living in the motorcycle and accessory trade since 1985 and your above quote 100% fits the future of the total motorcycle business going forward, something brands that have ‘dined out’ on a too narrow demographic-such as Harley Davidson-are presently finding out to their cost.  

Change is inevitable, and I hate change. So, naturally this does not sit well with me. But I also understand that there are some large issues with MotoGP, in terms of financial stability and attracting new fans. This acquisition may solve both. 

I also believe that the F1 comparison doesn’t work. It’s an intrinsically uninteresting motor sport (to me). And so all that could be done to increase profits was to increase the glamour and the drama.

I have a strong gut feeling that F1’s popularity will wane in the mid to long term. Once it reveals itself to the non-racing fans that have been sucked in by the hype and melodrama, they will move on to something else.


So, yes I’m worried. But I’m not crying in my coffee worried.