The final hurdle in completing Liberty Media’s takeover of Formula One could be cleared as soon as Wednesday.
On Tuesday it was confirmed shareholders in the American company have given the go ahead to complete the acquisition from former owners CVC Capital, in a deal reportedly worth $8.5 billion.
New shares will be created and the media arm renamed the ‘Formula One Group’ in an effort to finish the takeover in the first quarter of this year, the initial aim of Liberty Media.
In September last year, when F1’s new owners were announced, an initial stake of almost 19% was purchased but the remaining 81% was subject to confirmation from a number of parties including regulators.
Now, however, only the governing body, the FIA, stand between Liberty and the completion of the sale with talks having taken place in recent days.
At a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on Wednesday, is it believed the takeover could be given that final green light.
Chase Carey (in the main photo), formerly an executive of DirecTV and News Corporation, was installed as the new chairman last September working alongside long-time CEO Bernie Ecclestone.
It is still unknown precisely what the future for Ecclestone is after Liberty’s takeover is complete, though he expected to stay on and work with the new ownership to ensure a smooth transition.
Speculation had linked Ross Brawn, former technical chief at Ferrari, team boss at Honda and Mercedes and owner of the Brawn GP team in 2009, as taking a role in the running of F1 from a sporting perspective.
As for Liberty, they are looking to focus more on growing what is widely accepted to be the under-utilised use of social media and other marketing tools to promote the sport as well as increasing sponsorship opportunities.
There is also a strong ambition to increase US interest in Formula 1, something it has struggled with despite races in Las Vegas, Indianapolis but has shown signs of achieving at the current venue in Austin, Texas.
And finally a goal of boosting the product as a whole with proposals to change the race weekend format and offer more off-track entertainment akin to races currently held in Singapore, Austin and Abu Dhabi to name a few.
