American communications company Liberty Media is set to acquire the world’s largest racing series Formula One, Formula One Management (FOM) President and CEO Bernie Ecclestone has told German magazine auto motor und sport motorsport editor Michael Schmidt. The deal is reportedly worth $8.5 billion for Ecclestone and his holding company CVC Capitol Partners.
Liberty Media owns a broad swath of media properties, including cable channels in the Starz! And Discovery groups. It’s unclear what changes would come with ownership change of Formula One, but the broadcast rights have proved extremely lucrative for Ecclestone and his Formula One Management (FOM) company that he founded in 1978.
Ecclestone’s holding company, CVC Capitol Partners, owns a 35 percent stake in Formula One and Bernie was quoted in March saying he had a buyer lined up for $8.5 million. While Ecclestone has a propensity for churning out rubbish in the press, this sounds like it might be the final play for the 86-year-old F1 boss. However, it’s unclear if Liberty’s acquisition would include all of F1 or just the controlling percentage held by CVC.
Ecclestone told auto motor und sport that Liberty will transfer the money for the acquisition on Tuesday, September 6. The magazine also reports that Liberty Media may intend to make F1 a publicly traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange.
Ecclestone has seldom endeared himself to F1 fans, competitors, and media. The former racer and team owner has consistently made inflammatory statements in the press. His checkered past in the limelight with F1 has included most recently a bribery trial in Germany that he settled in exchange for a $100 million fine and claimed this year that he finds the series itself boring to watch but asserts (correctly) that people will watch it regardless. Ecclestone was also in the news recently when his mother-in-law, Aporecida Shunk was kidnapped in Brazil just before the Olympics. Shunk was freed nine days after her abduction.
Good…Hope he retires to the “Home for Old Trolls”.
Jake: very seldom does a racing series (group) have a good transition with fresh blood, may not like Bernie but he brought $$$$$$ and world wide interest to F/1,can’t be said about NASCAR,INDY cars and Drag racing. You may want Bernie back after the bean counters get done trying to increase their bottom line,usually on hurts the fans.
Watched Sky Sports this AM F1 race and The Troll was interviewed live on the grid and did not seem to confirm this report at all.
Totally fair comment. I’m fairly skeptical myself (hence the “Rumor” headline) since Bernie has a history of saying crap like this to misdirect the media from when he’s doing something more underhanded or even heinous. We’ll see what’s up come Tuesday.