130 days. It is the period that the European Commission has given itself to decide whether or not to authorize the sale of Dornaowner of MotoGPto the American group Liberty Mediawhose largest shareholder is the American billionaire John Malone. The operation, which involves the departure of the CPPIB funds and Bridgestone of the Spanish company and has moved to Phase 2 after Brussels detected competition problems, has a provisional deadline to close the file on May 14, according to official documentation.
Leading the analysis of this operation will be the new community competition services team, where Teresa Ribera, former vice president of Pedro Sánchez’s Government, is in charge. This is one of the first in-depth operations that Brussels must decide onwhich in recent months has precisely been working on simplifying the corporate mergers and acquisitions processes that must go through its controls.
Regulatory deadlines are being key in the operation. From the outset, Liberty already reserved the power to extend the deadline to March 31, 2025, but in exchange for a payment of 126 million euros to sellers in the first five days of January. In the event that Brussels’ regulatory rulings are leonine to the point of distorting the meaning of the operation, this payment will be retained by the sellers as compensation, in what is known in the sector as a break clause or ‘break fee’. .
In a less negative scenario, if the transaction has not been resolved by the end of the first quarter of 2025, as it now seems likely to happen in view of the stipulated calendar, the deadlines can be extended again.
“The Commission has preliminary concerns that the operation could lead to an increase in prices in the licensing of broadcast rights for motorsport events organized by both parties”the community body stated in a statement after its first analysis. Brussels then also showed “serious concerns” about competition in national markets in which Formula 1 is the clear leader and MotoGP is the only competitor. It also considered that the operation could remove important competitive restrictions in some broader markets for the licensing of sports rights.
More than 2.2 billion
The funds that own Dorna and Liberty sealed a historic agreement in 2024. The transaction values the company at more than 4,000 million and involves the payment of 2,282 million euros for the control percentage (86%) in the hands of the Canadian fund CPPIB and Bridgepoint .
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