Outgoing Liberty Media CEO responds to rumors of $20 billion F1 sale

Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, who will soon leave his position, has quashed rumors of a possible $20 billion sale of Formula 1, which Liberty Media acquired for $4.4 billion in 2017.

Addressing the rumors linking the Saudi Public Investment Fund to a possible purchase, Maffei firmly stated during an interview with CNBC:

“Look, I don’t think there are any plans to sell it.

“It has a great future, but you know, I suspect the Board of Liberty will be a good manager of shareholder capital.”

Under the leadership of Liberty Media, Formula 1 has experienced a transformative era, marked by extensive global expansion. Since the acquisition, the sport has broadened its global connection, significantly influenced by the Netflix docuseries “Drive to Survive,” which introduced the sport to a broader American audience and younger demographic. Maffei celebrates these initiatives and notes:

“Oh, I think F1 is incredibly well positioned.

“Probably the company I’m most proud of being involved with because we really – Liberty bought it, helped change the strategy, brought in Chase Carey and did a great job.

“Stefano Domenicali has done well, but the company is very well positioned, right? You know, the global partnership has grown since 2019. We have increased sponsorship to 16%. We’ve brought all revenue streams up to about 12%.

“It’s really been a hallmark of what sports wants to be, you know, fan interest is growing because of things like Drive to survivegrowing sponsorship, growing high-quality experiences.

“A kind of model that everyone tries to follow a bit. Everyone has done very well.”

Maffei’s impending departure from his executive role coincides with the expiration of his contract at the end of the year. John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, will temporarily assume the role of CEO. Despite his resignation, Maffei will remain associated with the company as a Senior Advisor. Commenting on his departure, Maffei explained:

“Well, I think John put it well, that we really accomplished the mission. We bought a series of companies, many of which were performing very well. But they didn’t have the optimal structure within Liberty Media. So over the last year we freed the Braves as a standalone government company. We had a transition agreement there where they continued on their own.

“We acquired our stake in SiriusXM through LSXM, our tracking stock, merged, spun out, reallocated and merged into Sirius. It is now a standalone publicly traded company. Still chairman of that. We took our stake in Charter and We now actually a pre-agreed deal to include that. So that’s another step away. And finally, we announced yesterday that we’re going to spin off our interest in Live Nation through Liberty Live.

“So basically all the pieces that were there of Liberty Media are now all separate. And Liberty Media is a pure play in motorsport with F1 and the impending takeover of Dorna.”

He added:

“There’s another chapter of Liberty to come, but I have to declare victory over the ones I’ve done. And we’ve had some great deals. We’ve been very lucky. Great management teams have run them. And it seemed like a good time to say the whole table is cleared. The whole stage is set. And my contract expired at the end of the year. And I thought, I’m going to watch another chapter.

“I will remain an advisor. I will remain a member of a number of our boards, including Live Nation and Charter. But I still have an act in me.”