America’s Liberty Media Corporation has reportedly agreed to buy the company that controls Formula One racing for $4.4 billion in cash and convertible debt.
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Vice-chairman of 21st Century Fox, Chase Carey will be the new chairman, whereas Bernie Ecclestone continues to perform duties of chief executive.
“Bernie Ecclestone will remain Formula 1’s CEO”.
However Liberty Media says it will actively engage with the teams by offering them the chance to become stakeholders, with some having already expressed an interest.
USA communications billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Media announced yesterday it had sealed a deal to buy the iconic racing business Formula One for US$4.4 billion (RM17.81 billion).
Liberty Media, who also own several sports and media companies including the Atlanta Braves in Major League Baseball, will initially purchase a minority stake in F1 (estimated at £559m) before a full takeover is given the green light by regulators approving the deal.
“I would like to welcome Liberty Media and Chase Carey to Formula One and I look forward to working with them”, Ecclestone said in a statement announcing the deal, Thursday. F1’s biggest current shareholder, investment fund CVC Capital Partners, and the other sellers will still own 65 percent of Formula One Group stock, and retain board representation.
Formula One has hundreds of millions of fans, and Carey said in a statement that he sees opportunity to develop it.
“Chase Carey will serve as the new chairman of Formula One, succeeding Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who will remain on Formula One’s board as a non-executive director”.
Huge changes are taking place behind the scenes in Formula One.
The global stretch of the sport has brought the company billions each year from advertisers and broadcasting rights, one of the world’s most-viewed competition series.
Ecclestone has stated, though, that Liberty Media – run by media mogul and billionaire philanthropist John Malone – will not simply be coming into F1 for the fun of it.
Earlier, he said in an interview with Reuters that he had been asked to stay on for three years and would miss the Singapore Grand Prix on 18 September as he needed be in London for the negotiations.
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“There have been many successes and the occasional challenge but there has never been a tiresome moment and we have had a lot of fun”.
