On Wednesday it was announced that Greg Maffei will step down from his role of CEO at Liberty Media after 19 years when his contract expires at the end of 2024.
Chairman John Malone will step into the role on an interim basis.
Maffei’s move coincides with sweeping changes in the broader Liberty Media business, with spin-offs aimed at simplifying its corporate structure.
As part of that, Malone revealed he’ll look to make changes at Liberty level with a view towards improving the Formula 1 business.
“We will probably realign our board of directors a bit to focus on two things,” Malone said of his plans post-Maffei.
“One is strengthening our ability to support the management on Formula 1 and the growth of our involvement in the racing businesses.
“And number two, in looking at opportunities to put together a jigsaw puzzle that will be the future to Liberty Media made up of whatever diversified assets we think will represent great, long-term investments for our shareholders.”
While Liberty Media owns Formula 1, the business is managed by president and CEO Stefano Domenicali and operates out of the United Kingdom.
The announcement of Maffei’s departure on Wednesday was met positively by the market, which saw Formula 1 (FWONK) stocks rise from $81.10 to $85.32 by market close. FWONA shares closed at an all-time high of $78.43.
“It’s humbling in many ways to be up here,” Maffei said, addressing a Liberty Media investor conference on Thursday.
“You all were nice enough to set an all-time high on FWONA the day I announced I was leaving, thank you!
“And you did it after we locked down the market data on my announcement press release, because I could have gotten a little bump…!”
Maffei led Liberty Media’s acquisition of Formula 1 in January 2017 in a deal worth, at the time $8 billion.
Reflecting on Maffei’s time with the organisation, Malone highlighted the F1 deal as “the most exciting” of his 19-year tenure as CEO.
“The most interesting transaction and most creative, I think, that the Liberty Media team and Greg came up with was how to take control of Formula 1, make it a public company, give the private equity investors liquidity, and end up creating one of the greatest success stories, I think, in sports,” he said.
“The use of a tracking stock to back Formula 1 into being published, bringing Chase Carey in, an extremely well-respected sports management personality who had run DirectTV for us, for Rupert [Murdoch] and then for us.
“That he and Greg have built this wonderful Formula 1 which is incredibly successful, but that has been probably the most noteworthy single business that Liberty has ever been involved in.
“So, we’re particularly proud of that.”
On Thursday, Formula 1 confirmed it had inked a new deal with Monaco, retaining the race on the streets of the Principality until at least the end of 2031.
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