Liberty Media Acquires Majority Stake
in MotoGP, WorldSBK
A
widely expected announce-
ment on Monday, April 1,
confirmed Liberty Media has
acquired MotoGP.
The American company,
based in Colorado, already owns
Formula One and has added
motorcycle racing's elite compe
-
tition to its portfolio, by buying
around 86 percent of the shares
in Dorna Sports S.L, which owns
the rights to both the MotoGP
and WorldSBK Championships.
Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta
informed the current MotoGP
teams during the opening rounds
of the 2024 season in Qatar and
Portugal that an acquisition was
imminent. On Monday, it was
confirmed that Liberty Media,
which bought Formula One in
2017, was the buyer.
They bought out both Bridge
-
point Capital and the CPPIB,
which had become the previous
principal shareholders of Dorna
Sports S.L. in 2006 and 2012, re-
spectively. Bridgepoint owned 39
percent of Dorna, while the CP-
PIB owned 31 percent. The rest
was owned by Dorna manage-
ment, which includes Ezpeleta.
With Liberty poised to acquire
around 86 percent of the com
-
pany, Dorna management will
retain "approximately 14 percent
of their equity in the business,"
according to an official state-
ment. "The transaction reflects
an enterprise value for Dorna/
MotoGP of $4.5 billion and an
equity value of $3.7 billion."
Ezpeleta had previously
informed teams that the new
owners had no plans to dramati
-
cally change MotoGP. Indeed, an
official statement stated Dorna
Sports S.L. will "remain an inde
-
pendently run company attrib-
uted to Liberty Media's Formula
One Group tracking stock."
WIND
IN THE
P32
Liberty Media will now be in
control of the two biggest
motorsport categories in
the world, with MotoGP
and Formula One under the
same commercial banner.
