Vodafone eyes to snap up Liberty Global assets for £12.32bn

 

Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile operators, is in talks to buy large parts of John Malone’s European cable group Liberty Global in a €14bn £12.32bn deal.

Billionaire “cable Cowboy” Mr. John Carl Malone, during the past two decades, snapped up cable assets across the region.

Vodafone shares, rise as much as 4.4 per cent to 223,8p in London trading, before settling at 219.5p.

As telecom companies are increasingly looking to bundle mobile and broadband services, this acquisition will enable Vodafone’s mobile business to complement Liberty’s strong fixed landline operations across Europe.

Vodafone owns wireless networks across Europe including Germany, Italy, and the UK.

The US-listed cable company Liberty, whose headquarters at the edge of the business park in Denver suburb Englewood,  owns the Virgin Media cable group in the UK and UPC, a pan-European cable network, which has a large presence in key markets especially Germany.

The talks, however, do not include Liberty’s British Cable company Virgin Media or its Irish division.