27/05/2011
NEWS STORY
Sky News is claiming that the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) is looking for financial advisers to assist with its negotiations over a new draft of the Concorde Agreement - the contract which governs F1's division of revenues.
This is hardly surprising since the current contract expires at the end of next year so the teams need all the assistance they can get right now. Furthermore, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone recently revealed to Pitpass' business editor Chris Sylt that if the teams don't sign the Concorde soon they will be charged to race from 2013. Clearly they need financial advice imminently.
The Sky News report adds that "prospective advisers have also been briefed to advise FOTA on a potential offer to buy F1 being assembled by a consortium led by News Corporation and Exor." We hope that Sky News doesn't think the prospective advisers were briefed about all the potential events which could take place otherwise the meeting could have lasted quite a long time.
Pitpass has been understandably sceptical of the claims about F1 being taken over by News Corp ever since Sky News first 'exclusively' reported it. It expected the public to believe that News Corp, which owns a 39% stake in the television station, was happy about it publicising details of its business plans. Clearly if the plans to buy F1 were serious, News Corp wouldn't have wanted them broadcast to the public before it had approached the sport's owner CVC.
Sky News' next reports focussed on other parties allegedly due to get involved with the phantom bid such as little-known investment bank Raine. It did no harm in raising Raine's profile although coverage of it was only brief since a bid has yet to materialise. The media seems to be tiring and growing sceptical of News Corp's alleged takeover of F1 since it has not even made a bid and the sport's owners CVC have confirmed that it is not for sale.
Raine has not even confirmed that it is involved with News Corp's scheme despite its involvement being 'exclusively' revealed by Sky News two weeks ago. Raine is the second entity to distance itself from the phantom bid. As Pitpass has already reported, the world's richest man Carlos Slim, who Sky News also 'exclusively' linked with News Corp's phantom bid, turned the media company down. It may be no surprise given the ulterior motives which News Corp and Exor could use the bid for as we have reported in detail in the article linked to above.
Interestingly in the latest 'exclusive' blog post written by Sky News' business editor Mark Kleinman neither Raine nor Slim is even mentioned as being involved with the "potential bid." It makes one wonder what was the point of highlighting that their involvement was exclusive news if mention of it would be quietly dropped in future.
Incidentally Pitpass isn't the only media outlet to notice the seemingly unwarranted use of the word 'exclusive' by Kleinman and other reporters. A recent story in the Daily Telegraph story at the bottom of this link neatly sums up this observation.