Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

It looks more and more like Southern Ireland is becoming a pet project for John Malone.

After buying the cable company some years ago, he recently bought TV3 and is planning on launching new channels over there in the genres of children, news and sports.

They paid way over the odds for the Six Nations rights so he does appear to be committed to TV3 in the long run. I've been told that many of the old management team have been shown the door since Virgin Media took over.

From an Irish Times Article last year:

Does he regard Ireland as high risk? “Personally, I really don’t care. It is a relatively small part of my assets and I am doing it because I love it, both the financial investment side as well as the personal activity side.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-s...land-1.2109800

He's spent 100's of millions in the country in recent years and is planning to spend his retirement over there.

Nice if you can afford to be so self indulgent, but it does improve things for those who live over there.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Liberty Global didn't buy Virgin Media Ireland. By the looks of it John Malone has always been part of cable in the Republic of Ireland - and Liberty Global bought ntl's assets in the ROI even before the ntl / Telewest merger.

Also the UPC brand pre-dates the Virgin Media brand.

The recent change is to bring the ROI business under Virgin Media in the wider group.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

I've edited the post, as you're right, it did rather give the impression that he had bought the cable company very recently.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Struggling to see the point of this thread.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

:tu::tu:

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

To inform people of the highly unusual approach to business by those in charge of their cable service, to enlighten those in Ireland of forthcoming changes and highlight the self indulgent personality of John Malone.

Top tip: If a thread topic doesn't appeal to you, don't enter it, let alone make comments that add nothing constructive to the discussion.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Malone bought NTL:lreland around 2004/5, since then and on the back of that and other acquisitions he has built the worlds largest cable company. What's unusual about that, unless you consider success unusual?


what of his actions are self indulgent? Look like business decisions to me.

Just questioning a thread that has no point to it.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

That's more like it :)

Well, it was in the Irish Times last year that he said that he didn't care about the fact that Ireland was a high risk venture.

“Personally, I really don’t care. It is a relatively small part of my assets and I am doing it because I love it, both the financial investment side as well as the personal activity side."

I'd say that buying something risky, simply because it provides you with personal pleasure, is very, very unusual in business- even by those who can afford to be so indulgent.

I also find the fact that he's building up his TV business in Southern Ireland, the place he intends to retire to, to be self indulgent in a 'feathering your own nest' kind of way. He's perfectly entitled to do this of course and this can only be good for Irish residents.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

He bought it a long time ago and like all is other purchases has made changes to improve the service.

Thats all I can see he is doing. Nothing to do with self indulgence.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

I think that there must be an element of this, as a media mogul he will want a decent set of channels to watch when he retires.

I can also imagine him wanting to 'pop in' to TV3, VM Ireland etc as he enjoys the business so much. I can't imagine that going down too well.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Why can't you imagine that going down too well? He generally doesn't get involved in the day to day running of any of his businesses. I don think he even went to the launch of VM in Ireland?

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Well, if the point of a thread is to create discussion, then this one seems to have achieved that and is therefore not pointless.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Nobody wants a retired boss hanging around the workplace giving their views, unwanted advice and generally interfering.

As he more or less says that he bought the Irish assets for his own personal enjoyment, I'd have thought that he'd do just that.

If you say he doesn't do this, fair enough. However, when he has lost his influence & power and suddenly has a lot of time on his hands, this may change.

Exactly, there are many, many threads on here that I have no interest in. I don't go into them to say pointless negative things that add nothing constructive to the discussion. I simply allow those who do find them enjoyable and interesting to get on with it.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

I really don't think he bought it for his own fun and enjoyment.

Also if he rarely gets involved in daily business now but rather sits back and watches the money roll in. Why on earth would he start running about after he retires going to the office??

Doesn't make sense at all.

Personally I think he bought the business for the same reason he buys other businesses and that is to make a lot of money, so he has a nice nest egg for after he retires.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

He bought risky businesses, but "doesn't care" because he "loves the financial investment and personal activity side" suggests otherwise to me.

My comments about him building up a business that he enjoys in the very place that he intends to retire suggests to me that he may take an inappropriate interest in the day to day running of that part of the business.

I have experience of Directors who retire, suddenly end up with a lot of time on their hands, feel useless and start to try and interfere. This can even happen when the business is passed onto a son or daughter- or even sold out of the family altogether!

To an extent I suppose it's unavoidable, especially if it's a business that they have nurtured and grown and they believe that what's been done or proposed is harmful to the business.

I guess something along the lines of the saying that 'teachers never really retire, they just grow older' comes into the equation too.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

He is 74 now and from what I can gather he simply advises nowadays rather than get involved in too much detail. I actually met him at a seminar in London a couple of years ago - he came across as a lovely guy.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

All billionaires are nice guys.:rolleyes:

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

I didn't realise that he was 74.

It's the "advice" that's often the problem from retired Directors ;-)

Still, if he's slowing down whilst still in the job, perhaps this is a sign that he won't interfere after all post retirement.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

I think you will find retired directors in very large multi-national companies tend not to 'hang around' after finishing, unless appointed as non-execs....

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

I think you are adding 2+2 and getting 9 I think you are looking at it all wrong.

I do not know of any directors who retired but are still involved in running businesses. I think it is that he enjoys purchasing businesses that are risky in order to try and turn them round,

Not that he bought it so he has something to do after he retires and TV cahnnels he might enjoy watching.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Good debate but for fairness I think this post should be credited to Chinamug who originally posted it on Digital Spy three days ago. http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...9&postcount=14

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Haha busted!

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

Chinamug has been made aware of where I got this information from and it is correct to say that this is what spurred my interest in this matter.

Whilst my post does contain some information that she originally provided, some does not.

We all obtain information from other sources, I really don't understand what point you're trying to make, nor why :confused:

For what exactly? :confused:

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

It's polite to provide links/attribution if you are using/quoting someone else's words - it also covers you under 'fair usage'.

You posted in the OP -

china mug posted on ds -

It would appear the only differences are you slightly shuffled it around, and you added "After buying the cable company some years ago, he recently bought TV3 and is planning on launching new channels over there in the genres of children, news and sports." and "Nice if you can afford to be so self indulgent, but it does improve things for those who live over there" at the end...

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

If I ever quote a post in full and don't add to/change/correct anything, I always just quote the original post, as even if wasn't anything innocuous, it wouldn't be right to attribute words to somebody that hadn't said them.

If i'm posting something as myself and someone has done a perfectly good job of putting the point across, it's just easier to copy/paste that section and recycle it.

Like I said further above, chinamug knows and isn't bothered.

Re: Liberty Global bought VM Ireland for the fun of it!
 

DS Forum Member "yorksdave" make an good point over on DS Forum when talking about ITV takeover of UTV:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...&postcount=185

Info from yorksdave and DS Forum