It is a blockbuster deal that will get the financial markets hot and bothered. Liberty Media's acquisition of Dorna Sports from Bridgepoint Capital has come in a deal worth €4.2 billion. That's not bad for a company that was worth around €500 million in 2006, when Bridgepoint bought Dorna from CVC in 2006 after the latter was forced to get rid of it by the European Commission at a time when it also owned F1.
In the ensuing years, Dorna enjoyed a boom period as the rivalries between the likes of Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo kept fans enthralled. It navigated the series through the financial crash of 2008, bringing in a radical set of rules from 2012 to boost grid numbers. This led to manufacturers returning for 2016's switch to same spec-electronics, which also levelled the playing field and brought some of the most exciting racing the championship had seen.
