Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Sports

Liberty’s MotoGP buy delayed as EU opens in-depth investigations

The European Union’s highest institution will open an “in-depth investigation” to determine whether the purchase of MotoGP by Formula 1 owner Liberty Media violates its antitrust framework. The European Commission, one of the EU’s decision-making bodies with executive power, is determined to closely analyse Liberty’s acquisition of Dorna, which holds the rights to the MotoGP

Liberty’s MotoGP buy delayed as EU opens in-depth investigations

The European Union’s highest establishment will open an “in-depth investigation” to find out whether or not the acquisition of MotoGP by Formulation 1 proprietor Liberty Media violates its antitrust framework.

The European Fee, one of many EU’s decision-making our bodies with government energy, is decided to intently analyse Liberty’s acquisition of Dorna, which holds the rights to the MotoGP World Championship.

The wording of the acquisition, introduced in Might, stipulates that the American media firm would purchase an 86% stake in Dorna that might worth the Spanish agency at 4.2 billion euros.

Nevertheless, the transaction, which was initially on account of happen earlier than the top of 2024, is not going to be accomplished inside the anticipated timescale as a result of intervention of the European Fee.

Following an preliminary report by Bloomberg final week, the competitors regulator introduced on Thursday that it’s opening an “in-depth investigation” to make clear whether or not the deal violates the antitrust framework established by the workplace headed by Teresa Ribera, who serves as vice chairman of each the Fee and the Spanish authorities.

The suspicion revolves across the risk that MotoGP’s acquisition may place Liberty, which already owns F1, in a dominant place available in the market for granting race broadcasting rights in Europe – and that might finally result in a rise in shopper costs.

Sprint Start

Dash Begin

Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Pictures

“The transaction raises critical competitors issues in potential slim nationwide markets for the licensing of broadcasting rights for motorsports content material within the European Financial Space, the place Formulation One is the clear market chief in all European international locations and MotoGP is most frequently its solely competitor,” argued the fee in first of the 2 factors on which it primarily based its choice to not approve the acquisition instantly.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

“The transaction might take away necessary aggressive constraints between the events on some potential wider nationwide markets for the licensing of broadcasting rights for all sports activities content material or doable segments of such markets. Specifically, it’s because it seems that Formulation One and MotoGP compete intently,” it added.

On the identical time, the fee will additional examine the affect of John Malone, who’s the principle shareholder of each Liberty Media and Liberty World, and whether or not that might drive out rival broadcasters in international locations during which Liberty operates, similar to Belgium, Eire and the Netherlands.

The investigation is now getting into a second part which might last as long as 90 working days from the date of submission of the contract – 14 November – earlier than deciding to go in a single path or the opposite. The brand new deadline is due to this fact prolonged to 14 Might.

The settlement between Liberty and Dorna stipulates that Liberty must pay a sum of 126 million euros to the MotoGP promoter if it withdraws its provide.

On this article

Be the primary to know and subscribe for real-time information electronic mail updates on these matters

Read More

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

NFL

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will pay roughly $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump, who accused the platform of unlawfully...

UFC

January 28, 2025 11:59 pm ET MIAMI – GFL’s Miami team features a lot of Cuban power, and Robelis Despaigne is over the moon...

NFL

By Mark Hunter 21 hours agoFri Jan 31 2025 10:33:41 Reading Time: 2 minutes A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the creators of...

Baseball

8 Bargain-Bin MLB Free Agents Every Team Could Use 0 of 8 Luke Hales/Getty Images Obviously, the additions of Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and...

MLB

MLB free agency is here! Similar to how last winter was defined by the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes, this offseason so far has revolved around...

MLB

Joel Reuter December 5, 2024 Projecting the Price Tags For Top MLB Free Agent of 2024-2025 Class 0 of 10 Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images...

Boxing

Paul Kasabian Featured Columnist II January 30, 2025 Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson admitted that he may...

NBA

Joseph Zucker @@JosephZucker Featured Columnist IV January 30, 2025 Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin "is being monitored by nearly every team...

MLB

In April 2024, radio and television personality Craig Carton argued that Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who allegedly stole $16 million from the...

NBA

Andrew Peters January 30, 2025 Sarah Stier/Getty Images De'Aaron Fox's preferred trade destination is reportedly interested in him. On NBA Countdown, ESPN's Shams Charania...

American Football

The Dallas Cowboys recently named Brian Schottenheimer as their new head coach. He will replace Mike McCarthy, who went 1-3 in the postseason during...

Baseball

The Houston Astros have had quite the winter, positioning themselves with some solidifying moves that could, and should, help them retain dominance in the...

Sports

Angel Reese / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images Angel Reese enjoyed an amazing 2024 in which she finished up her impressive collegiate basketball career and...

Advertisement