F1 owner Liberty Media set to finalise €4bn MotoGP purchase

The deal could be announced in the coming days, ahead of the third round of the 2024 MotoGP season at the Americas Grand Prix on 12-14 April.

Motorsport.com understands that executives from Liberty and Dorna Sports, the promoter of the MotoGP, WorldSBK and MotoE World Championships, finalised the deal weeks ago.

In fact, the intention of both parties was to make it official before the first grand prix of the year in Qatar.

At that time, however, concerns about the intervention of the European Commission body that regulates the competition market froze the move.

While one side advocated moving forward, the other preferred to wait for developments.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday afternoon that the takeover can be considered a done deal, although the business daily also pointed out that it would be very strange if those responsible for applying competitions law did not analyse the case.

In this regard, it is worth noting that CVC Capital Partners, a Luxembourg-based investment fund, owned both F1 and MotoGP in the past, but was forced to divest one in 2006 by European antitrust authorities – with MotoGP being sold.

While Liberty has always been the preferred bid of Dorna executives, there have also been moves in recent times by Qatar Sports Investments, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and TKO, the media and entertainment conglomerate that, among other things, owns the rights to the UFC Championship.

In the last year, the sale of Dorna became one of the priorities of Bridgepoint and the Canadian pension fund (CPPIB).

Bridgepoint, which became a shareholder in 2006 – it bought its shares from CVC – owns about 40% of the shares, while CPPIB manages 38%.