On Monday 1 April, Formula 1 owner Liberty announced it had acquired MotoGP and parent company Dorna Sports from Bridgepoint Capital for €4.2 billion.
The deal was originally set to be finalised prior to the start of the 2024 MotoGP season, but getting it cleared by anti-trust boards – particularly in the European Union – slowed the process.
Former owner CVC Capital was forced to sell MotoGP when it bought F1 in 2006, which has led to some questions as to how Liberty plans to avoid the same fate.
Speaking in an investors call, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei was confident the deal will meet regulatory approval and that no leveraging of the two entities is taking place.
"We are very confident we will get this through regulators because we believe there is a broad market for sports and entertainment properties, of which both Formula 1 and MotoGP are only a small subset, and the market has continued to change from the time when the market was previously reviewed in a major way," he said.
"We are going to not treat these as a bundle or try to bring them together in the market.
"These are both separate properties. The things that we are bringing to the table here are not in any way leveraging the two.
Source: Autosport