The European Union is set to investigate Liberty Media’s intended takeover of MotoGP, according to reports by Bloomberg.
Liberty Media, which also owns Formula 1, announced it had planned to acquire an 86% stake in Dorna Sports, the company which has owned MotoGP since 1992.
The deal was valued at 4.2 billion euros, with an equity value of 3.5 billion euros excluding Dorna’s 14% stake.
It was also announced in August that the American company intended to sell a $825 million stake in F1 to help fund the purchase of the MotoGP championship.
However, according to Bloomberg’s reports, which cites sources familiar with the matter, the deal is facing an investigation by the EU’s new antitrust chief Teresa Ribeira.
Ribeira, who is Spain’s deputy prime minister, was given the role earlier this year, driving climate and antitrust matters within the European Union.
Supposedly, Ribeira’s concerns are surrounding the impact the Liberty deal could have on broadcasting and streaming if two major championships like MotoGP and F1 are owned by the same company.
EU officials are set to begin a so-called phase 2 of the probe by the deadline of 19 December.
It had already been anticipated that the Liberty deal with Dorna would face a probe from the EU, as F1’s previous owner CVC Media had previously been ordered to sell MotoGP when it bought F1 in 2006.
However, back in April when the agreement was announced, former Liberty CEO Greg Maffei said he was “very confident” about the deal being approved by the EU.
“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,” Maffei said.
“We are going to not treat these as a bundle or try to bring them together in the market.”
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