PRIMER: Liberty Media and Formula 1

WHY AM I HEARING SO MUCH ABOUT LIBERTY MEDIA?

Depending on what happens over the next 24-48 hours, Liberty Media are likely to be the new owners of a majority stake in Formula One's commercial rights.

HOW MUCH WILL THAT COST THEM?

Somewhere between $8.5b and $9.1b, in two stages. For that, Liberty will get the 35.5% stake currently owned by CVC.

WHO ARE THESE GUYS?

Liberty Media is a mass media and entertainment giant: it and its sister companies own majority stakes in Live Nation and Sirius XM, and have shareholdings in media providers including Time Warner and Viacom. On the sporting front, it owns the Atlanta Braves. At its head is publicity-shy billionaire John Malone, whose many achievements include having been nicknamed 'Darth Vader' by Al Gore for his uncompromising business style.

THAT COULD BE A GOOD THING FOR F1 IN THE U.S., RIGHT?

It certainly could. Across Liberty's various interests, it has the resources to put F1 in front of more American eyeballs, across a wider variety of media platforms, than has been practical in the past. And as ESPN noted, Liberty Media's sister company Liberty Global can leverage its 29 percent stake in Discovery Communications to extend its reach far beyond the U.S. One critical subplot from a domestic racing standpoint would be how the likes of NASCAR, IndyCar and IMSA can respond to an unprecedented level of competition from the world championship.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR BERNIE?

That's one of the big unknowns. Bernie told the German media in Monza that his future role would be "his decision". Given that he's effectively an employee of CVC now though, the degree to which that true is not really clear. At the very least, you can expect him to retain some sort of role initially, even if only for the sake of continuity. How much genuine power that role would carry remains to be seen.

IS IT A DONE DEAL?

Depends who you ask. Sources close to the negotiations suggest that everything is in place barring the ink on the signature line, although speculation persists that Liberty faces competition from elsewhere for the keys to the biggest property in motorsport. Autosport reported over the weekend that a group led by RSE Ventures (headed by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross) and a consortium from Qatar remains in negotiation with CVC, as does another unnamed private equity firm. Broadcast giant Sky was also sniffing around.

And even if the Liberty deal does get over the line this week as most observers expect, there could be complications further down the road. Forbes reported on Tuesday that if the deal goes ahead, the FIA could find itself under scrutiny from the European Commission over a potential conflict of interest.

WHAT SORT OF CONFLICT?

We need to rewind a few years. The FIA owns a 1% stake in F1 parent company Delta Topco. This itself has already drawn the EC's attention in the wake of an EC investigation into whether the FIA was biased toward F1 several years ago. That investigation ended with an agreement that the FIA would sell all of its rights to the F1 world championship, and while the current 1% stake would appear to contravene that, the EC has apparently been happy to let it slide.

That could change were the FIA to actually profit from this sale though – and that's a very real possibility. Depending on the terms of the sale, the FIA could either choose, or be forced by majority owner CVC, to unload its 1% stake. That stake, which Forces reports the FIA bought for around $450,000, is now worth something in the order of $91 million.

In 2001, the FIA sold F1's former parent company SLEC the commercial rights to Formula 1 for the 100-year period between 2011 and 2110. The contract for that sale include a clause stating that the FIA must give its consent to any sale of F1's parent company. So basically, you have an independent governing body needing to approve a sale from which it stands to make more than $90 million. That's why the EC could be expected to take an interest. And according to Forbes, an EC investigation could jeopardize the very deals that tie the current teams to the world championship – and therefore undermine the entire business model that Liberty is buying into.

SOUNDS COMPLICATED.

It's Formula 1.