On the evening of April 1, 2024 local time in Europe, Dorna Sports S.L., the owner of the world's top motorcycle race MotoGP, announced that Liberty Media, the parent company of Formula One, has acquired about 86% of the company's equity.

Official information indicates that the deal values MotoGP-owned Dorna Sports at around €4.2 billion and Liberty Media's acquired stake at around €3.5 billion. Liberty Media reportedly put up 65 percent in cash and 21 percent in F1 common stock to complete the acquisition, while the management of Donuts Sports retained about 14 percent of the equity.

The acquisition, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2024, leaves the company's existing debt intact after the deal is finalized, while DonaSport, which is part of the F1 Group under Liberty Media, remains independent in operating MotoGP's exclusive commercial operating rights and television rights.

This is another shot at top-tier motorsports since Liberty Media acquired F1 in 2017. Currently, Liberty Media Group has two top motorsports events in its hands, F1 and MotoGP. Compared with F1, which is regarded as the "crown jewel" of motorsports, MotoGP is still the only "top stream" in motorcycle racing, although its influence is not comparable to that of F1.

Founded in 1949, MotoGP had six races in Europe in its first season, but today it covers five continents, with more than 20 grand prix every year. 22 top motorcycles compete in the competition, with top speeds of more than 360 kilometers/h. The MotoGP has been in existence since 1991, and is based in Madrid, Spain.

Since 1991, Madrid, Spain-based DonaSports has exclusively operated MotoGP's commercial operation rights and television rights.

It is worth noting that this time, Liberty Media Group has made a bid to acquire DonaSports, which, in addition to the FIM MotoGP World Championship, also owns the exclusive rights to other motorcycle races, including the MotoGP feeder series Moto2 and Moto3, the FIM MotoE World Championship, the FIM Superbike World Championship, and the brand-new FIM Women's World Championship.

In the same way that F2 and F3 came under the umbrella of the Liberty Media Group after F1 was acquired, this move to acquire MotoGP brings all of these motorcycle races under the umbrella of Donuts Sports, under the group's umbrella.

However, there are six World Championships under the FIA, of which F1 is just one, and six World Championships for events under the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), all of which, including the MotoGP World Championship, are owned by Donaghue Sports.

Liberty Media Group acquired F1 in 2017, shelling out about $4.5 billion to complete the acquisition of the holding, which was worth over $8 billion at the time.

And by the beginning of 2023, PIF, the Saudi sovereign fund that manages over $620 billion, offered $20 billion to buy F1, but this offer was rejected by Liberty Media Group.

After completing the acquisition of F1 in 2017, Liberty Media Group's main expansion targets the U.S. domestic market and the Chinese market.

Started in the media business, Liberty Media Group has continuously ramped up its sports and entertainment business in recent years, from the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves, to F1, to MotoGP, the U.S. domestic market has always been their home turf.

The acquisition of F1 in 2017, to the first F1 Miami Grand Prix in 2022, to the 2023 F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, with a $1 million Paddock Club ticket and the $2.3 billion 110-meter Sphere Pavilion, frames Liberty Media's "paper-thin" approach to F1. The "paper and gold" of F1 has been defined by the free press.

By the 2023 season, F1 will have three grand prix in the United States, including the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which sports business analyst Joe Pompliano defines as the largest single sporting event in the history of "Vegas" with the largest audience in the world.

According to his analysis, the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix contributed more than $1.5 billion to the GDP, with visitors spending $884 million and generating more than $77 million in tax revenue, making it the highest taxing single event in Las Vegas history.

At the same time, the spending power of tourists who came to Vegas because of the F1 race was 3.6 times that of ordinary tourists, with a per capita spending of more than $4,100, and 7,300 jobs were created in the area, with employees receiving more than $52 million in wages as a result. The day after the game, the Las Vegas airport became the second busiest airport within the United States, with a total of 2,200 airplanes taking off and landing.

These analytical figures show that Liberty Media is building up F1 for the domestic market in the U.S. In 2022, the group was ranked by Forbes as the world's most valuable commercial sports empire, with a valuation of more than $17 billion.

As for the Chinese market, after taking F1 in 2017, Liberty Media Group immediately opened copyright negotiations with CCTV and Tencent Sports.

In 2018, F1 returned to the CCTV screen after five years, and Tencent Sports took the new media rights to open the F1 production, while Shanghai Five Star Sports and Guangdong Sports Channel, also retained the broadcasting rights.

At the beginning of 2019, in the official F1 global media report for the 2018 season, the global independent audience of the event's telecast reached 492 million people, up 10% year on year. Thanks to its return to CCTV, F1's viewership in China has more than tripled, and the Chinese market, with 65 million unique viewers, also occupies the second place in F1's global total viewership list.

Just before Liberty Media Group acquired Dorna Sports and MotoGP, Tencent Sports also began producing and broadcasting MotoGP races from March this year, after taking back the F1 rights in 2023 after a one-year gap.

Like F1 in the past, MotoGP's previous base was in the European market, with a number of Middle Eastern divisions joining in recent years. However, following the acquisition by Liberty Media Group, the US and Chinese markets will, rightly, be given the most emphasis.

Greg Maffei, President and CEO of Liberty Media Group, said: "We are pleased to expand our portfolio of leading sports and entertainment assets with the acquisition of MotoGP, a global event with a loyal and passionate fan base, a strong financial position and a high cash flow ratio. There are many visible benefits to this business that we can extend to a broader global audience."

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)