Cable Media
EUROMEDIA
V
MARCH 2018
Vodafone confirms
Liberty Global talks
odafone has confirmed
is back at the
negotiating table in
early stage discussions with
Liberty Global regarding the
potential acquisition of certain
overlapping continental
European assets owned by Liberty Global.
The global mobile operator, ISP and cabler
said there was no certainty that any transaction
would be agreed, nor as to the terms, timing
or form. But it did confirm that it was not in
discussion with Liberty Global regarding a full
merger.
The pair had previously held inconclusive
talks in 2015 regarding a possible exchange of
selected assets and are also 50:50 joint venture
partners in VodafoneZiggo Group Holding
in the Netherlands, which combines Ziggo’s
fibre-rich broadband network with Vodafone’s
mobile operation to create a stronger converged
competitor to KPN in the Dutch market.
Confirmation of the talks follows Liberty
Global’s December 2017 agreement to sell its
Austrian operations, UPC Austria, to Deutsche
Telekom unit T-Mobile Austria. It is understood
the talks concern assets in markets where
the firms overlap, including Germany, Czech
Republic, and Hungary.
Speaking on Liberty Global’s Q4 2017 Earnings
csgi.com
Call, CEO Mike Fries did not
comment specifically on press
speculation and announcements
about what the operator may
or may not do going forward in
Europe, he said he wanted to
make one thing clear. “We are
not ‘dismantling’ our European business as one
paper noted; quite the contrary,” he asserted.
“In today’s competitive world, scale matters
more than ever and we are committed to the
core markets we’re in, where we see a pathway to
becoming a national champion. Now consistent
with this strategy we have a pretty good track
record of accretively rebalancing our business
from time-to-time. Those who have been
investors would know that and that allows us
to focus on what we do best; innovate, invest,
compete and build scale and grow. And the sale
of Austria UPC Austria is really just the latest
example of that,” he suggested.
According to Fries, the company remained
focused on three key strategic goals. “First,
driving national scale to both smart rebalancing
and footprint expansion. Second, investing in
profitable customer growth through network and
product innovation. And then third, optimising
our levered equity returns to the benefit of
shareholders, that’s a pretty strong combination
in our view.”
Published by Advanced Television Limited Unit N202 Vox Studios 1-45 Durham Street London SE11 5JH, Tel: +44 (0)20 3567 1444
Can You See Me Now?
The Ver ification E x perts
FTTx
Transport
CaTV
Fiber
SAN
Wireless
Carrier Ethernet
Broadband
“We’re Your Network’s
Best Friend”
W i t h Ve E X
ADVANCED TELEVISION
®
Test S o l u t i o n s Yo u C a n !
Cable Media 1