PARIS: Formula One owners Liberty Media swooped to buy MotoGP on Monday in a deal valued at around $4.5 billion, the American company said.
MotoGP said in a statement that Liberty Media would acquire "approximately 86 percent" stake from owners Dorna in a deal valued at 4.2 billion euros ($4.5 billion).
Britain's The Financial Times had earlier reported that Liberty were in pole to seal a deal after beating off rival interest from Paris Saint-Germain's Qatari owners and sports and entertainment group TKO.
As well as MotoGP Dorna also holds the rights to the Superbike championship and the electric bike series MotoE.
Liberty is not the first conglomerate to own both F1 and MotoGP.
CVC Capital Partners held that position until they were forced to sell MotoGP in 2006 to buy F1 after concerns were raised by European Union competition regulators.
Since Liberty paid CVC eight billion dollars for F1 in 2017 the sport has enjoyed a spike in popularity and the company's CEO Greg Maffei suggested last year that while F1 was not for sale it was worth now "a hell of a lot more" than $20 billion.