Ferrari traded its entire stake in Formula 1 "for an interest in the racing franchise’s new owner, Liberty Media," according to Christian Sylt for the London GUARDIAN. The Italian luxury car company revealed in a regulatory filing that it sold its 0.25% stake in the top-ranked single-seat auto race series in exchange for $3.1M worth of stock in Liberty and a cash payout of $11.4M. Ferrari’s annual report stated that "as a consequence of the change of control, Ferrari exercised the options … and on 22 February 2017 received approximately $11.4 million in cash (including $2.7 million of previously undistributed dividends), 145 thousand Liberty Media Corporation shares and $911 thousand of Liberty Media exchangeable notes." The automaker is F1's "most famous name and is the first of its 10 teams to acquire stock in Liberty." This is not the first time Liberty has "tried to tempt F1’s teams into becoming stakeholders in an effort to change the old-boys management structure of the storied race franchise." In the wake of the takeover, Liberty offered F1’s 10 teams the chance to buy $1.1B worth of its shares, but "none of the teams accepted the offer." Since then, Liberty has "scaled back and has given the teams a July deadline" to buy $400M worth of its stock. Ferrari is the first company to take Liberty up on its offer. Liberty CEO Greg Maffei said that the shares are being offered to teams "as part of an induced change in how we operate together." He said that if the teams do not "buy the shares they will be repurchased by Liberty" (GUARDIAN, 3/10).
