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US media giant buys Formula One motor-racing franchise

Liberty Media sees potential in building audiences for Grand Prix racing.

Nevil Gibson
Fri, 09 Sep 2016

Entertainment giant Liberty Media Corporation has agreed to acquire Formula One in a cash-and-stock deal that values the car-racing franchise at $US4.4 billion.

Formula One stages races in cities from Monte Carlo to Kuala Lumpur. It markets lucrative television rights and sponsorships and negotiates contracts with venues and teams.

CVC Capital Partners, a London-based private-equity firm, bought majority control of Formula One in 2006.

Chase Carey, the former chief operating officer at 21st Century Fox, will serve as chairman of Formula One, succeeding Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who will remain on Formula One’s board.

Chief executive Bernie Ecclestone retains his position and the organisation will remain based in London.

“There’s an opportunity to continue to build this business and take it to the next level,” Mr Carey said on an investor call, noting that Formula One attracts large TV audiences and reaches favourable demographics for advertisers.

For Liberty, controlled by John Malone, the Formula One deal adds to a series of recent deals.

A pioneer of cable TV, Mr Malone, 75, helped engineer Liberty-backed Charter Communications’s roughly $US60 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable last year.

In June, Mr Malone was a key player in the union of pay TV channel Starz with the film studio Lions Gate Entertainment.

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Nevil Gibson
Fri, 09 Sep 2016
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US media giant buys Formula One motor-racing franchise
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