February 05, 2013

Liberty Global makes a bit for Virgin Media

It's Virgin Media's results week, and whereas most of us would be happy if CEO Mr Berkett was eyeing  additional HD channels it appears something else is trying to catch his attention. Reuters reports:
John Malone's cable group Liberty Global has approached Britain's No. 2 pay-TV operator Virgin Media about making a bid for the firm, the UK group said on Tuesday. Virgin Media, which has a market value of $10.6 billion, was formed by the merger of cable groups Telewest and NTL and mobile operator Virgin Mobile.
"Virgin Media confirms that it is in discussions with Liberty Global, a leading international cable company, concerning a possible transaction," it said in a brief statement. "Any such transaction would be subject to regulatory and other conditions."
More on Liberty Global on Wikipedia. To get a taste of how they run their current cable companies, take a look at the entry on Cablevision, the NY. Lots of carriage disputes and a reputation for carrying too few channels at too low a bit rate. Sound familiar?

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