George Kurtz, CrowdStrike CEO, and Toto Wolff, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team CEO, join 'Closing Bell' to discuss Kurtz' stake on Mercedes, the business of the sport and much more.

Las Vegas

George Kurtz, founder and CEO of CrowdStrike, has officially acquired a minority stake in the Mercedes Formula 1 team. The investment, which is a personal one and not linked to CrowdStrike, follows a longstanding partnership between the cybersecurity company and the racing team.

The transaction values Mercedes F1 at $6 billion, with Kurtz acquiring 15% of Toto Wolff's stake, amounting to about 5% of the overall team. Both parties highlighted the growth potential of Formula 1, especially in the U.S. market, and noted the sport's expanding and diversifying fan base.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz takes minority stake in Mercedes F1 Team

Hi, Mike. Good to see you. We're going to break the news right here, right now. Here with me is Toto Wolf. He is the CEO, team principal of the Mercedes F1 team. And George Kurtz is the founder and CEO of CrowdStrike. This has been rumored, but now it's official. George, tell us about the news. It's official. I took a minority stake in the Mercedes F1 team in partnership with Toto. And I couldn't be more excited about it. It's something that's been in the making for a bit. And it really comes off the heels of a long-term partnership that we have at CrowdStrike with Mercedes. And the key thing to focus on here, it's a personal stake for me, not a CrowdStrike stake. Not a CrowdStrike stake. But again, what we've built over time in terms of the relationship has really allowed us to come to this day and put something together that we think is great for all parties. And I couldn't be more excited to be part of the sport. I mean, part of the big news here is the valuation for Team Mercedes of $6 billion. He's taking 15% of your stake. You own about a third of the team, or used to, which is about 5% of the overall team. Toto, why sell now? Let me start somewhere else with George, because it's important. When I started this adventure with Mercedes, we were in there for the long term. I was in partnership with Mercedes since 20 years in touring cars and smaller formulas. I'm a shareholder of the Formula E team with them. So this is the kind of journey that we had. And we are not sellers. But with George, we kind of grew together. We made each other long before his IPO. We've been part of the journey of growth. And George is very unique in the sense that he's not only a successful tech entrepreneur, one of the most successful tech entrepreneurs, but he's also a racer. And that is a skill or a niche, a combination of understanding that is important for us. So bringing him aboard is great. When it comes back to valuation, we're still undervalued compared to U.S. American teams. You're not happy with the $6 billion valuation? It's more than NHL. It's more than a lot of baseball teams. You're up there with NBA teams. Yeah, I think the reason why I guess George has done that, and he's a super shrewd investor, is that there is upside potential. And I'm not saying this, we are very proud of where the sport has gone in the last few years. But the valuation is extrapolated from profits and from revenue and the multiples thereof. There is no such thing as a trophy factor of the asset itself. You think there's a lot of growth runway. I was going to ask you, so first of all, George is a racer. And as I just learned from his wife, he is one of very few people that has won Le Mans, 100th anniversary, 24 hours, and Spa. So fun fact there about George Curtis. Are you buying this because it's fun to have a stake in the Mercedes F1 team? Or do you think that there's a lot of growth potential here? Because $6 billion is a record high valuation for this sport. Look, there's a passion here. But when I put something together, there's a business purpose, right? And in my opinion, there's a lot of upside in Formula 1. There's an upside in Mercedes, or I wouldn't be involved. So I think when you have passion and business come together, it makes things a lot easier. And when you have people that you know for a long time and that you have kindred spirits and like-minded view of winning and high-performance cultures, that's a huge opportunity. And from my perspective, the U.S. market is really underserved. We were talking a little bit earlier. There's always a question of whether it's peaked. We have three races here. We already had Drive to Survive. We've had a Brad Pitt movie. How does it get better? Think about all the new fans that are coming into the sport and growing. And this is something that I think the U.S. hasn't had for a long time. I was telling you the story where you'd have to get up and watch a Formula 1 race in the middle of the night before you had a DVR. That's not all that long ago, right? So you have all these new fans coming in. You have a different demographic. Female demographic is really involved with some of the latest shows that are out, and they're fans. And when you come to an event, you see what it means. The reason why CrowdStrike is involved in Formula 1 is there is a return, right? We've perfected that, and we want to bring that to the United States, to the tech market, and have other partnerships that can exploit that and make the best of Formula 1 and what it all means. What do you see, Toto, as the biggest growth driver for the sport? Like George said, over the years, we've seen tremendous growth, not only in the United States, but globally. We are the largest sport when it comes to audiences. That happens every year. Our races are sold out in the United States. If you look at Austin, that happened most recently, more than 400,000 spectators. And I think those are very good indicators. Also that our demographic, fan demographic, is getting younger. Our strongest group is 15 to 24-year-old females, 42% females overall, whilst not losing the hardcore fan of the past. So I think, like I said, the indicators are positive, but obviously the underlying product, the sport, needs to be good. The entertainment factor needs to be good, whilst staying honest to who we are and what we are. We are a sport. Entertainment follows the sport, not the other way around.

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Breakdown