Motorsport Network Media LLC Acquired By GMF Capital

Motorsport Network Media LLC (MSNM) one of the largest media companies in the world announced Wednesday that GMF GMF Media, an affiliate of GMF Capital, has acquired a controlling majority stake in MSNM, with an option to buy the remaining minority interest sometime in the future.

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in London MSNM has grown to become one of the world’s largest independent motorsport racing and automotive media platforms. Best known in the United States for its Motorsport.com website the company has over 50 flagship motorsport racing and automotive digital properties which include racing websites such as Motorsport, Autosport, Motorsport-Total, and GPOne, and automotive industry brands such as Motor1.com and InsideEVs.com.

Motorsport.com was acquired in 2015 and the company established its American headquarters in Miami. The following year it acquired Haymarket Publishing, a major competitor with a large portfolio of automotive brands dating back to 1950. Through the years the company has partnered with Codemasters, Le Mans, and NASCAR. They also conducted a global fan survey of Formula 1 which was reported to be the largest fan survey in sports history.

Today the company boasts 40 million-plus monthly users and 15 million social media followers. The GMF deal includes the Motorsport Network brand name, Motorsport.tv, the leading video platform for live and on demand streaming, and the Autosport Awards, an annual auto racing awards ceremony.

GMF Capital was founded by former commodities trader, and Swiss native Gary Fegel in 2013. The company has offices in New York City and Switzerland, and through its affiliates has a portfolio with an estimated worth of more than $5.5 billion. The investments include assisted living to tech startups, private companies, and financial instruments.

The Motorsport deal, however, will be the company’s first venture into the automotive space.

“I'm an opportunistic investor,” Fegel said ahead of the announcement. “You know, I do a lot of different things.

“We've been looking at digital media for a while and various properties. That's also how we got eventually to the Motorsport Network… it wasn't you know, racing or auto sport related at all when we were looking into this category. But when that opportunity came up, you know, we had to look closely.”

Fegel said once he saw the opportunity to get into the motorsports space his interest peaked.

“I'm a Formula One fan for a long period of time; actually forever,” he said. “I’m fascinated by what's going on in the Formula One space. I mean, motorsport in general, but, you know, Formula One, obviously being the largest category these days, and the headwind; everything that happened in that space for the last few years that I found really interesting.

“Sports all sport, digital media, these are all interesting categories. I just never really had an opportunity to do something in that space that made sense to me. But this one does. So that's how we ended up here.”

The deal itself didn’t happen overnight.

“You can't just you know, wake up one day and say, ‘today's a good day to buy a racing property’, right?” Fegel said chuckling. “You have to act when the opportunity's there. So when this opportunity came to us you know, we looked at it very closely and over the last few months put together a deal that made everybody happy…we brought it over the finish line. And so, we are in.”

And while Fegel is a Formula One fan and it’s a big part of motorsport.com, racing fans in America won’t be forgotten.

“I wouldn't say at all that we just want to focus on Formula One,” he said. “I think Formula One is just an, obviously a large and fast-growing category. Having said that, I think NASCAR in the U.S. is a huge business in itself. If at all we want to expand in that category.

“We don't see ourselves as one website, right? It's motorsport more broadly, of course.”

As for the change’s users, and perhaps more importantly employees might see.

“Well, I hope we can bring positive change,” Fegel said. “I mean, we see a lot of potential.”

And that potential includes areas that he hopes will help grow the properties.

“You know, we are not buying this to keep status quo, right? We're buying it to grow the business. We see a lot of opportunity in the TV and streaming side of things, for example. Part of the deal is motorsport TV.

“The US market is kind of underserved; only like 15% of traffic is in the United States which is hard to believe. It should be way, way higher given the interest in the last few years.”

A part of the deal that isn’t included in the acquisition is the MSNM Interactive Entertainment division, which includes Driven Lifestyle and Motorsport Games. This will allow the new company under Fegel and GMF Media to focus on the core automotive and motorsports spaces that will now become the primary part of the entire company.

“We love the space,” Fegel said. “We did a lot of work on it the last six months. You know we look at this in the long term.

“This is definitely not to downsize anything or anybody, this is this is definitely, hopefully, a growth story.”

GMF and Gary Fegel are ready to take the MSNM to the next level and grow one of the largest automotive and motorsports platforms in the world to even greater heights.

“I think that summarized it quite well,” Fegel said.