Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
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Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Another notch on John Malone's belt.
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VIP has increased by £5 a month to £125 a month after 12 months for new customers
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Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Any plans for a rewards system similar to what Sky have introduced?
With the vast majority getting a price hike of at least £3.99 every year and nothing in return its no wonder so many left last year and no doubt another mass exodus will be on the way this Autumn |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Broadband providers attempting to block mandatory compensation scheme.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...-compensation/ |
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Price increases are about right for increased costs of delivering services. Even without any speed increases the average household is up to 200+GB of data a month, increasing 40+% per year. Cost of delivering that data isn't dropping quickly enough to compensate. That ignores the ongoing obscene costs of TV rights. When fewer and fewer people take telco then it'll really hit the fan. |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
I genuinely would rather pay a bit more for broadband than having to take a telephone line to subsidise it.
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Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Virgin Media launches kids TV app
Virgin customers can download the Virgin Kids app from the Apple and Google download stores, with shows available to view offline when abroad. http://advanced-television.com/2017/...s-kids-tv-app/ |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Broadband TV News reports that Liberty Global is exploring the sale of its cable subsidiaries in Switzerland and Austria.
The discussions are understood to be at an early stage and may not lead to a transaction. |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Interesting. Why is a global cable company looking to sell off presence in those countries?
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These two will likely combine at some point and as I said earlier in the thread, merge together with Malone's US companies.
Eventually an even bigger fish (Apple??) will come along and swallow the lot whole once Malone has done all the work of bringing various content and network companies together. ---------- Post added at 23:36 ---------- Previous post was at 23:31 ---------- Quote:
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Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Virgin Media gives away £100 vouchers in flash sale on Full House TV bundles.
https://www.cable.co.uk/news/virgin-...ale-700002082/ |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
So, Liberty Global is set to float its interests outside Europe (aka LILAC), sell its Austrian business to Deutsche Telekom and thereby put itself in pole position to combine with Vodafone. Interesting times in 2018!
https://www.ft.com/content/08f7f89a-...9-0191e45377ec |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Yes, I was meaning to publish Dear John's latest goings on myself. That FT article is a premium one, but the story is mentioned in this Telegraph article: (and other articles too)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...est-manoeuvre/ Malone was interviewed by CNBC last month and he basically said his cable assets are up for sale if a suitable buyer comes along and he was approached by four companies but refused to name one of them. I think we know who that is! Here's a snippet of that interview: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/16/john...r-charter.html Here's a long interview he did last year which I found very interesting: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2016/11/1...interview.html In other news, Malone has also bought a higher share in Discovery today, a company he controls, albeit indirectly already: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/17/libe...ery-stock.html He's starting to look quite frail now which is not surprising as he is in his 80s and he clearly wants to finish his consolidation of his empire, then sell the lot to the highest bidder. He's also buying full control of HSN, Home Shopping Network, perhaps he'll merge it with QVC. |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Latest business news:
Vodafone eyes European expansion with Liberty Global deal http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42921619 Purchase of assets, merger or takeover - any offers? |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
A different article I saw yesterday mentioned the UK, but the BBC article doesn't.
If the assets swaps are in countries where they both have assets, the UK is clearly one of them. Liberty Global's full year results are out in a few weeks, so perhaps we might find out then, although normally they don't talk about this sort of stuff. |
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The FT front page article on this today specifically rules out VM being part of the deal.
Malone has spent all this time buying separate European cable cos, only to split them off again and sell them. Doesn't make sense at all. |
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http://tools.eurolandir.com/tools/Pr...code=uk-vod&v= |
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So what do we reckon will happen here? Is this Liberty selling most of their European cable business' to Vodafone like UPC and keeping VM for themselves? Perhaps as a possible prelude to merging VM with with their American companies. Don't forget Malone now controls Scripps, the owner of UKTV (Dave, UK Gold etc) or will. That deal hasn't finalised yet.
I don't get what his thinking is here. Malone and Fries constantly talk about scale. They have that with their European operations, but unlike America, their European cable cos operate in different countries, different languages, laws etc etc. Perhaps they are just tired of running such disparately operations, but why buy them in the first place? Perhaps they just want to concentrate on the English speaking world and sod everything else?? I think we need to keep an eye on the wider media landscape too here as Malone was talking to Viacom and CBS last year about a possible deal between them. At the moment, Viacom and CBS are talking about merging back together again, so perhaps ultimately the new CBS/Viacom may become part of Malone's empire at some point. Everyone is worried about Amazon, Netflix, Apple and Facebook. It's why Mudoch has sold out. Malone now has significant media interests, but they are still much smaller than the new Disney to be, the new AT&T/Time Warner company (when that happens) Comcast/NBC and the likes of Amazon haven't really yet put all their tanlks on the field yet, they will.. Here's a quick reminder of what Malone de facto controls, if not owns: Virgin Media all3media (one of the UK's largest production houses) which makes stuff like Midsomer Murders, Hollyoaks and Wolf Hall. Discovery Eurosport Scripps - the owner of UKTV F1 Charter - the 2nd biggest cable co in America Starz OVC and HSN a share of Lionsgate and not forgetting almost 10% of ITV. and that's just the main stuff. If that were all merged together, that would be significant in itself, but merge all that with Viacom/CBS or someone else and you have an aboslute global goliath. If that were to happen, expect a ITV-Ch5 merger soon afterwards. Still no mobile deal, yet. ---------- Post added at 21:29 ---------- Previous post was at 21:07 ---------- And just from my predecessor thread to this one, thread here: https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...6#post35780236 A few posts from there: Quote:
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I know what Vodafone want, including considering launching their own pay tv service, but where once they were dominate in their field, they're now the number three player.
Lets not forget 5g. Mobile companies need fibre networks to help them power their mobile networks if we're all going to download hd/4k films onto mobile devices in seconds. VM has a fibre network, so does Talktalk, albeit a smaller one. I don't see TalkTalk surviving much longer in any case after their data breach, so Vodafone could in theory buy both of them. |
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After being one of the TalkTalk data breach victims my view is the quicker Talk Talk are taken over by responsible owners, the better. I would rather forego access to the internet than become a Talk Talk customer again.
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Hard to say really. Voda needs to do something, they are not exactly competitive at the moment. |
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VF is already prepped for 5G, money ready and waiting to be spent. You forget VF has about £72bn on its balance sheet waiting to be spent, its not like they don't have the means to do it. ---------- Post added at 16:38 ---------- Previous post was at 16:33 ---------- Quote:
VM is a more advanced company that is true, it is well established and has a proper solid quadplay offering. I just don't think Vodafone is readsy to splash the £15bn+ on one market alone, given they already have a sizable foothold and a rapidly growing broadband customer base. I just think VM will cost too much, its a prize asset, just not one VF needs. |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Any deal does not include UK or RoI, the JV with VF & Ziggo may also go entirely back to LG as part of any deal.
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Talk Talks brand has been seriously damaged by its constant data breaches perhaps the only way forward is to be adsorbed by another company, another company who knows what their doing.
TalkTalk's share price plummets 14% after dividend is cut again as it ramps up fibre broadband roll-out Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/m...#ixzz56WpnjgRN |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Instead of being called Talktalk, it'll be Walkwalk soon. The company is finished in my opinion. If the share price continues to fall it will cease to be a FTSE250 company and all the fund managers will pull out of it, thus sinking the share price further.
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I was unaware Vodafone had cancelled their tv plans, thanks for highlighting that here. Are there any articles available to read about why they did this? If they were about to merge with VM, then fair enough, but that doesn't look likely at the moment. |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Virgin Media signs deal to make sci-fi series with Amazon
https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...mazon-the-feed |
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and I work for Vodafone. |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Virgin Media Reports Preliminary Q4 2017 Results.
http://www.libertyglobal.com/pdf/pre...017-Report.pdf |
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Up to 4,000 residents in 12 villages in Hampshire's Test Valley and Dun Valley will be able to access "ultrafast" internet from late 2019. They all paid a £300 connection fee.
"While Virgin Media is already active in other rural areas, until now it has done so by extending its existing urban operations. What makes the new scheme unique is that the network is being built from scratch." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43372054A |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Virgin and TalkTalk discuss deal over broadband sharing.
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Interesting. I thought TalkTalk was on its last legs with some kind of buyout looming in its future.
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Yes that is what l thought so it was quite a surprise to read this.
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We mean don't TalkTalk use BT wire right now to offer their Network??? |
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I can’t imagine VM would want to buy talk talk. Liberty sold their non cable customer base to TT to focus on cable...
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Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
TV3 secure exclusive Irish rights to Champions League and Europa League next season.
https://www.galwaydaily.com/news/tv3...e-next-season/ |
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TalkTalk could lay fibre in Virgin’s ducts but not vice versa as TalkTalk don’t really have any. Even their backhaul from the BT exchanges is rented fibre running through Openreach ducts. |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
....exactly.
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TalkTalk have already done trials with Sky over sharing costs of FTTP infrastructure and I see this as the same sort of thing. I doubt VM will allow access to its existing network, but we'll see. This seems to be about sharing the cost of going into new areas. As VM has found out with its Project Lightening expansion, it takes a lot of time and dosh. So, to farm out half the cost and work to someone else makes a lot of sense to me, especially as TalkTalk isn't a serious competitor anymore. I think the key thing on future networks, will be to see what the result of who buys Sky is and whether that organisation makes a serious play to invest in FTTP infrastructure or not. Everyone knows, regardless of whatever rules there are, that BT is not going to make it easy for fibre operators to use its infrastructure. We need at least one other network other than BT and VM to give us some choice. I would expect the small FTTP operators (CityFibre, Hyperoptic etc) to join forces too at some point and/or perhaps they'll be bought by someone like Sky or Vodafone. There are many nationwide fibre optic networks. They run along the canals, bridges etc all across the country. Where we lack is those lines going "the last mile" into homes and BT will do fcuk all about FTTP unless it has to. |
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Virgin Mobile prices are going up 3.3% from July 2nd a £30 bill will increase £11.88 a year or 99p a month
http://metro.co.uk/2018/05/14/virgin...4/?ito=cbshare |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
This could prove interesting. Mockeridge is leaving VM.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...-prepares-log/ |
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He said: "We are recruiting for a replacement for Dana Strong, Virgin Media’s former chief operating officer." |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Maybe Liberty Global will look to sell off Virgin Media.
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So, in the UK you would have: - an incumbent telco (BT) part/wholly-owned by a combined Deutsche Telekom/Orange - a cable company part/wholly owned by LGI/Vodafone/Altice - a satellite company part/wholly owned by Fox The French equivalent would be: - Incumbent telco: Orange. At some stage to merge with Deutsche Telekom - Cable company: Altice. At some stage to merge with LGI/Vodafone - Satelite company: Canal+. At some stage, this loss-making company to be acquired by Fox/Sky, more likely if Universal Music is floated. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/artic...sal-music-free Whether in an era of IPTV, nationalism and Netflix such consolidation will still happen remains to be seen. |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
...Yes, agree. Plus to add further confusion into the mix, BT is selling all its EE masts too. But I think the tech will be less relevant as lines will, and are being blurred, between telcos, cable cos and sat cos.
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At the top of the article it says they are, "to seek a new chief operating officer with a view to promotion to the top job next year." And then the exact opposite at the bottom of the article. What are we to make of that? |
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1) The Telegraph got the COO mixed up with Chief Executive as the COO is the person VM confirmed as leaving. 2) VM are keeping it low key and it's true. |
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Where the hell have you got that nonsense from? If anything they are building more masts not selling them. That is just about the biggest load of bollox I have read on here. Why would a network sell their masts? |
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However, apparently the masts whilst on EE's balance sheet are committed to a joint venture with Three so it may not even be possible even if BT wanted to do it. #financialengineering |
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Virgin Media's £240 early exit fee is unlawful, Ofcom provisionally concludes, as customers could receive compensation
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...les-customers/ ---------- Post added at 14:00 ---------- Previous post was at 13:33 ---------- Virgin Media have dropped the monthly cost of the VIP bundle to £79 per month and the Full House package is now £49 per month Both offers run until May 28th https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...Full-House-VIP |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Virgin Media acquires Dungarvan cable television company.
https://www.businessworld.ie/news-fr...ny-570883.html |
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Thanks for any help. |
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Virgin Media are doubling broadband speeds for new customers only at no extra charge
Player Bundle Average Download Speed was 54Mbps now 108Mbps PRICE: £29 per month for 12 months (£48 thereafter) Mix Bundle Average Download Speed was 108Mbps now 213Mbps PRICE: £45 per month for 12 months (£55 thereafter) Full House Bundle Average Download Speed was 108Mbps now 213Mbps PRICE: £55 per month for 12 months (£70 thereafter) The offer is expected run until July 31st |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
A precursor to another round of speed doubling, perhaps?
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It would not surprise me if they announced something in the Autumn..
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Here's the link to the premium Telegraph article I got the story from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...band-upgrades/ ---------- Post added at 17:32 ---------- Previous post was at 17:31 ---------- Quote:
---------- Post added at 17:42 ---------- Previous post was at 17:32 ---------- Discovery get international gold PGA rights: Quote:
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Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Interesting case: Virgin Media sues Durham council over its charges for allowing it to lay fibre
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Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
I just posted in the Comcast thread, but relevant for here too.
The AT&T Time Warner merger was cleared by a American judge last night which will now pave the way for the next wave off mergers. As well as the battle for Fox, I expect John Malone to be at the centre of the next batch of mergers involving his various interests from Discovery, Charter, Lionsgate and others. The CBS/Viacom remerger is delayed at the moment, but once that gets sorted out, as I've said before, I would not be surprised if John Malone merges some of his companies in with them and probably include Verizon too. I said this in post 6 of this thread: Quote:
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Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
John Malone Buys $33 Million More in Discovery Stock further increasing his grip on the company. He denies it's related to any potential future M&A.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/dis...ock-1529494200 |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Maybe increase in speeds coming now? EE will be offering upto 300mbs connections now.
https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status...29758885269510 |
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What will be interesting is how they advertise the speeds once uptake increases. Only around half of the UK population lives within range of a cabinet that could serve just under 160Mbps potentially so advertising may reflect this in a big way. What is advertised as "average 300Mbps" may well end up around 120-150Mps in 6 months.
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Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Lutz Schüler, currently CEO of German cable operator Unitymedia, will become Chief Operating Officer of Virgin Media from September 10, 2018.
https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2018...om-unitymedia/ |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
He looks German too, in a 80's Hasselhoff type way.
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A couple of titbits of news about John Malone:
Malone will retire from the board of Lionsgate in the Autumn. He will retain his share in Lionsgate. https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb...ons-gate-board Malone increases his shareholding of Discovery last month, a few hours before the AT&T/Time Warner merger was cleared: https://www.barrons.com/articles/dis...ock-1529494200 With all the media mergers and those to come, I say join the dots on this... |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
One last titbit of news I've picked up on, regards one of Murdoch's companies called Endemol Shine. This is the Anglo/Dutch "indy" responsible for stuff such as Big Brother, Masterchef, Merlin and Peaky Blinders.
With Disney now likely to win the battle for Fox, Disney is not interested in Shine, especially as Fox only own 50% of it. The other half is owned by a venture capital fund, thus Fox is selling it. Malone is interested in buying Shine according to various sources including Hollywood Reporter. Remember that Malone already owns the UK's largest other "indy" All3media. By owning Shine too, Malone would control a vast range of British tv. He still has that 10% of ITV and now owns the Irish version of ITV too. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...rdroom-1127466 |
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Liberty Global customers to benefit from real-time updates about engineer visits
https://seekingalpha.com/pr/17220111...ngineer-visits |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
Malone retires from the Charter Board, just days after he retires from the Lionsgate Board.
It maybe his advancing years and he simply wants to slow down now, but this could be a "signal" that the long expected (at least by me) consolidation of his various assets, maybe about to happen. https://advanced-television.com/2018...ctor-emeritus/ |
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Does anyone know the actual percentage of Discovery that Malone now owns, after increasing his shareholding at the end of 2017 and last month?
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Virgin Media momentum fuels LG Q3.
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EE and Virgin Media fined £13.3m for overcharging their customers.
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Virgin Media tops Ofcom pay TV complaints
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Virgin Media tests 8Gbps broadband - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47130989
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Virgin Media trials hyperfast multi-gigabit home broadband - Press release
https://www.virginmedia.com/corporat...broadband.html |
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Liberty Global in talks to sell Swiss arm.
https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2019...iberty-global/ |
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Virgin Media Ponders Opening Up UK Network to Rival ISPs.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...ival-isps.html Quote:
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I can see the chain of events now...
VM wholesale's access to its competitors LG earn a tidy sum from it all VM's accounts look nice and rosy as a result of increased income LG sells VM to Vodafone at an increased valuation LG rake it in from the sale |
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Surprise rival to VM and BT:
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...fer-price-deal ---------- Post added at 15:00 ---------- Previous post was at 14:55 ---------- Quote:
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...e-update-speed If they do this though, maybe VM will again* tie it in with access to the missing Sky channels from their TV service, namely Sky Atlantic. * In the past they negotiated the supply of many missing channels in return for selling their own channels to Sky. |
Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
This rumour comes about every couple of years and usually leads to nothing.
Still, business is business and I can see a business case for it. I just don't see what's in it for the competition when they're already investing in their own networks and *DSL is starting to seriously catch up. |
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VM may open up their network, if, as I expect, Liberty eventually sell off VM to Vodafone, Comcast or whoever.
But as said, the story comes around every few years and nothing comes of it. Having their own network gives VM a major advantage over Sky and other competitors and I doubt they will relinquish that advantage any time soon. |
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Malone is getting old and wants to sell. LG is too small on its own now, so either Malone links all his various assets up, or he sells.
I see the cable cos sold off by LG to Vodafone (which gets cleared soon by the European Commission) as the warm up act to come. Quote:
Comcast is a cable company, by nature. |
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