Financial news agency Bloomberg has suggested there may be a hitch in the works for Formula 1 owner Liberty Media’s proposed takeover of MotoGP rights holder Dorna, with the EU competition and monopolies commissioner set to announce a detailed investigation into the purchase later this month.
Liberty, whose proposed MotoGP deal was first announced back in April, submitted paperwork to the office of EU commissioner Teresa Ribera last month, with a deadline to receive further information of December 19 - but with noises from inside Liberty suggesting it believed the process would be a relatively painless one.
Regulatory approval has long been seen as the biggest hurdle in the €4billion deal to unite the world’s biggest motorsport championships under one roof, with questions being asked about what the proposed merger would do to the broadcasting market in particular.
And, it seems that those concerns are also felt by Ribera, a recent appointee to the office who hails, like Dorna, from Spain.
A former deputy prime minister, she is likely to be personally more aware of MotoGP in particular than her Danish predecessor Margrethe Vestager thanks to the championship’s popularity in her home country - and is reportedly taking a keen eye on the deal.
Instead of clearing Liberty’s purchase like they wanted, she will, according to Bloomberg, instead initiate a more detailed ‘phase two’ assessment of the transaction, a process that will significantly delay the deal.
That comes amid concerns about the lack of competition in broadcasting and streaming markets that could be created by bringing MotoGP and F1 under one overall owner.
A Liberty Media spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company is continuing to “work constructively” with EU regulators as part of the review and that it hopes they “will understand the dynamic nature of the market.” The Brussels-based commission declined to comment.
Regulatory intervention over MotoGP’s ownership is nothing new. The current situation has a clear parallel to the 2000s when MotoGP’s previous owner CVC was initially prevented from taking over F1 when it already had the controlling stake in Dorna - a process that eventually led to CVC selling its MotoGP interests to current majority owner Bridgepoint.
To complete its F1 takeover in 2006, CVC elected to divest itself of its ownership in Dorna due to "serious doubts" over simultaneous ownership of F1 and MotoGP "impeding effective competition" from the competitions commissioner.
