Liberty Media founder sells voting power of F1's parent company
Liberty Media founder and ex-chairman John Malone has sold his significant voting power in Formula 1's parent company.
Malone founded Liberty Media in 1991 and stepped down as chairman of the board in 2026, nine years after Liberty Media acquired F1 for $4.6billion USD (£3.4bn).
Malone was the most significant voting shareholder of Liberty Media until early November 2026 when Liberty Media announced that it had purchased Malone's 'high-vote' stock and exchanged it for 'low-vote' stock, essentially diluting Malone's voting power from around 48% to 3%.
Liberty Media purchased the high-vote stock after Malone received "a number of unsolicited offers from third parties" to acquire it.
The transaction effectively eliminates the transfer of Malone's voting power to a third party and strengthens Liberty Media shareholders' power in voting matters - such as a sale of F1.
In 2025, Malone said on the Opening Bid Unfiltered finance podcast that Liberty would be open to a sale of F1 - with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) among F1's then-touted suitors.
He said F1 "has an exceptionally good economic structure", adding: "It's a public company. If somebody gets carried away, and they want to buy it, and they're willing to pay more for it than the board thinks that they can deliver to the shareholders, then we would sell it. That's the bottom line."
Liberty Media president and CEO Derek Chang said during the company's Q3 earnings call that Malone "controlled a significant set of votes with a relatively low economic interest".
He explained that Liberty Media's purchase of the voting shares "helps us effectively control our own destiny forward".
There is no indication that Liberty Media is considering a sale of F1 in 2026.
Chang added: "We're still focused primarily on growing the businesses that we have. And as we stated previously, sort of investing behind those businesses and growth plans that they have is probably the biggest priority as we think about other forms of capital allocation."
The net worth of F1 sits at nearly $28bn as of November 2026, with the average value of an F1 team having reached $3.6bn in 2025 according to Forbes.
In 2025, Liberty Media completed its acquisition of an 84% stake in MotoGP commercial rights holder Dorna for around $3.3bn or €3.02bn.
