Vodafone could buy Liberty Global (UPC, Virgin media etc.)

The Cush

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/08/30/liberty-global-shares-rise-on-vodafone-deal-speculation/

Speculation at the moment but who knows what the future will bring

In a research note, Yong speculated that Vodafone, which is in talks to sell its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless back to Verizon Communications for as much as $130 billion, could use some of that cash in a deal for Liberty Global. The cable operator has a market capitalisation of around $29.8 million. She said that Macquarie believes “the probability of a Vodafone-Liberty Global tie-up has somewhat increased near term.”

Broadband TV Views. Buying Liberty Global would make sense for Vodafone. The company needs to become less dependent on mobile communications only and has made some investements in broadband and IPTV ventures in the recent past.

With the acquistion of Kabel Deutschland, Vodafone is entering a new phase in this development and further acquistions, such as Liberty Global, can be expected.

AlanS181824

Er Mah Gerd. Guess after just selling their stake in Verizon they have some money to spare..

icdg

Yeah, but they'll be under pressure to give some of that back to their long suffering shareholders. While Vodafone does have an involvement in fixed line (especially here with its Perlico and BT acquisitions), a takeover of Liberty would be too much for it to chew - it would make it one of the biggest fixed line broadband providers in Europe and I'm not really sure how that fits with their core business of mobile.

On the other hand Vodafone didn't get where it is today by organic growth - it went through a buying spree about ten years ago, gobbling up companies (such as Eircell here and most famously D2 Mannesman) as if it were out of fashion.

patrickmooney

It makes perfect sense. No need to wholesale from the likes of Eircom or BT here. With their own network they can easily offer quad play. Take into account Virgin in the UK and the massive European market you have one massive Euroean player. One to watch.

coylemj

That article in the OP's post above was written before Vodafone announced what they are going to do with the proceeds of the sale of their 45% stake in Verizon Wireless.

The consideration for the sale is that Verizon is giving Vodafone a mix of cash and Verizon shares. Vodaone has announced that they are going to give their shareholders all of the Verizon shares and a bundle of cash so I doubt that they will have enough retained cash to make a credible bid for Liberty.

There's also the issue of Kabel Deutschland, recently taken over by Vodafone. The German or EU regulaors would force Vodafone to sell KD if they took over Liberty and in what would effectively be a fire sale, they'd probably have to sell it at a loss.

who_me

There's a kind-of important typo in the original article, Liberty Global's market cap. is approximately 31 billion, not million.

Further talk recently about the possibilty of Vodafone buying Liberty Global (UPC, Virgin Media)

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/item/39593-vodafone-may-buy-cable-gian

icdg

we don't drag up old threads