Liberty Media chief executive Greg Maffei explained why the company’s plans don’t include the sale of Formula 1, and if it decided to part with such an asset in the future, it wouldn’t be for $20 billion but would ask for much more.
It was this amount that was called out when rumors circulated that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund would ask the price of Formula 1 early this year. At the same time, Liberty took control of the championship for $ 4.2 billion.
“If our company sells one of its divisions, we pay corporate taxes, then all of the income we’ve paid it over is distributed to our shareholders, and they also pay taxes on it,” said Maffei, who participated in the Walker Webacst podcast. – If we said goodbye to Formula 1, we would split it into a separate company and wait long enough.
We currently have no plans or intentions to sell it – this asset may be sold in the future, when there is no need to pay corporate taxes. I want to say that the structure of our company today is such that we will not sell anything.
I have already mentioned that the Saudis are our partners in a number of projects: the race takes place in their country and Aramco is our sponsor. But they never negotiated with us to take over Formula 1. And frankly, $20 billion wouldn’t be an attractive price. I would ask for much more! We have big plans for the future.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
