Global cable company consolidation continues apace. Liberty Global (Nasdaq: LBTYA), fresh off its acquisition of Germany's Unitymedia and Kabel, is now in the market to snap up the Netherlands top provider, Ziggo.
In Mexico, Grupo Televisa is tidying things up by purchasing the 41.7 percent of Cablemas it doesn't already own for $397 million, merging a company that has nearly 1 million cable subscribers, 360,000 HSD subs and 205,000 phone users into Televisa.
Liberty, which has been romping through Europe like the Allied Forces after D-Day, is making a preemptive move on Ziggo ahead of a potential IPO that would value the company at $9.97 billion. "We have a track record of not being put off by the prospects of an IPO," Liberty Global Chief Strategy Officer Shane O'Neill told the Financial Times. "It never bothers us. These guys are motivated by money and if you show up with a more attractive bid, they will go for you."
For more:
- Telegeography has this story
- Euromoney Institutional Investor has this story
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