Liberty will pay U.S. $ 47.02 per each share of Virgin Tuesday's worth of cash and stock so that the total reached U.S. $ 15.75 billion. Virgin plus debt, the transaction is valued at up to U.S. $ 23 billion.
The transaction will make Liberty owner John Malone became a major competitor Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp media network. You see, Virgin Media was second behind British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB), Murdoch's pay television.
Dubbed Cable Cowboy, Malone and his network became one of the few major cable television industry players from the United States (U.S.) with 18.4 million subscribers.
While Murdoch has a total of 19 million subscribers. Murdoch's BSkyB is the UK market leader with 10.7 million subscribers.
Liberty Murdoch will become a major competitor in the UK since Virgin has 4.9 million subscribers in the country. Virgin Media today announced a profit of 2012 reached £ 261.4 million (U.S. $ 409 million). The company lost £ 920 million in 2008.
Not only open access in the UK, the largest market in the Blue Continent, the purchase also gives Liberty Virgin broadband business in 11 European countries. England recorded giving a monthly income of U.S. $ 41 cable, higher than any other country, according to British researchers, Informa Plc. Following this transaction, Liberty plans to sell shares to the public in Europe in the second quarter of this year.
Previously, Liberty had expand to some European markets such as Germany, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and Switzerland. Meanwhile, News Corp BSkyB and Sky besides having Deutscland, also has Sky Italia.
Forbes estimates, Malone has a wealth of up to U.S. $ 5.6 billion. While Murdoch has a U.S. $ 8.3 billion, and is the 38th richest person in the U.S.. While Richard Branson with assets of U.S. $ 5 billion, pocketing U.S. $ 316 million from selling all 6.6% stake in Virgin has.
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