Liberty Global, the US cable operator, has acquired the British competitor Virgin Media for the sum of 23,3 billion dollars, which will be paid partly in cash and partly in shares. This marriage, as stated in the joint note of the two companies, will give life to the "leading global broadband communications company, capable of covering 47 million homes and serving 25 million customers in 14 countries”.
The agreed price is $47,87 a share, a 24% premium over Virgin Media's close on Monday. With this purchase, Liberty Global intends to focus increasingly "on the more solid and strategic European markets", continuing along a line of acquisitions already traced in the Old Continent, where, after the recent operations in Germany and Belgium, the US company is already the first operator cable.
The group controlled by tycoon John Malone is growing continuously, having recorded revenues for the first nine months of 2012, equal to 7,6 billion dollars. With this latest acquisition, the objective, clear but not declared, is to launch the challenge to Rupert Murdoch, king of satellite channels, increasingly expanding the battlefield to Europe.
Attachments: The Guardian article
