Venture Capital firm to buy F1

[gt]

CVC Capital Plans to Buy Majority of Formula One, Reuters Says Page 1/2

By Sheenagh Archey
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- CVC Capital Partners Ltd., a U.K.
buyout firm, plans to buy a majority stake in Formula One, Reuters
reported, citing an unidentified banker.
Bernie Ecclestone, head of Formula One racing, and Bayerische
Landesbank will sell their stakes in SLEC, Formula One's holding
company, to London-based CVC, the newswire said.
The buyout firm is also negotiating with Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. about buying their minority
stakes, Reuters said. No prices were given, the newswire said.
Ecclestone, 75, will remain head of Formula One racing,
Reuters said.

(Reuters, 11-25)

Hmmm, so yet again BE manages to cash in whilst still remaining in charge
Wonder what the future will hold for F1 in the hands of a private equity firm..

[gt]

flemke said:

gt said: Wonder what the future will hold for F1 in the hands of a private equity firm.. To have as much money squeezed out of it as is humanly possible. You thought that the "sport" was scraping the bottom of the lowest-common-denominator barrel already? Stay tuned...(that is, until you turn your set off forever).

Agree on the money squeezing, but thats been the case for the last 8 years, and they got their fingers burnt last time (the consortium, and Kirsch media before them)
Whatever they paid in the hope of being able to squeeze cash, they better move quickly before the manufacturers bugger off and they are left holding thin air, seems like a bit of a wild risk to me.

As usual you can be sure the winner will be BE, and the losers the "fans" (unless they decide in a stroke of genius to use the accountants as apex marker posts)

quite depressing really