Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Broadband, TV, mobile and landline phone companies will have to tell customers when their contract is coming to an end and show them the best deals available under new rules coming into effect on 15th February 2019

https://news.sky.com/story/new-rules...edium=referral

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

That can only be good for the customer as there will be more transparency and less smoke and mirrors.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Of course that should have said 15th February 2020

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

In my predecessor thread to this one I talked about Starz, the American competitor to HBO that was fully owned by Malone until he swapped ownership in that for a stake in Lionsgate who bought Starz. Anyway... CBS is looking to buy Starz and if that happens, that might then start the ball rolling on the next wave of media mergers that I've spoken about.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/21/lion...follow-up.html

On the linked page if you scroll down is the latest interview that Malone did with CNBC, well worth a listen if you have the time. He makes no secret he thinks his companies should be part of larger media empires, it's just the question of which one.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

CBS and sister company Viacom are about to remerge again in the next month or so and John Malone has stated quite clearly he would like his companies to be part of that entity too which in turn may get gobbled up by American mobile company Verizon, which used to be half owned by Vodafone...

So, watch this space, we might soon get a announcement over the coming months of Discovery and Malone's other companies joining up with CBS/Viacom.

Malone is a minority shareholder in Viacom.

Edit: Although being a cableco guy at heart, don't be surprised if Comcast and Discovery come together, that's something Malone has mentioned too.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Just a update, the CBS and Viacom remerger announcement is imminent, within the next few weeks, but also expect something to happen soon with Discovery too.

There's been heavy buying in options in Discovery over the last few days which in English means someone is putting a a lot of money into Discovery because they reckon (or have inside knowledge) that Discovery will either become a bid target or be the bidder. Watch this space, but expect something to happen over the next three months, based on this options buying spree. The options that have been bought expire in October.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Insider trading is quite an accusation, even by Cable Forum standards. ;)

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

If people are betting a lot of money, they are either purely gambling (which in this case, they may be) or they have inside knowledge of a future event. It's how most of these bankers and brokers make money, or do you think the world's financial system is based on honesty and integrity??

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

No I don’t, but I wouldn’t out and out specify that someone could be committing a crime on a public forum. Especially as you appear to be referring to specific transactions.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

How on earth would I know who's made those transactions? I named no individual, so your accusation is false. Anyone can make the same comments as I have based on the options buying over the last few days and as I said, they, whoever they are, could be purely gambling, with a lot of money..

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

You seem to have taken my off the cuff remark (note the wink) quite personally. You then doubled down on it (bizarrely) implying insider trading is somehow commonplace.

On a purely technical point though you don’t need to know who is involved in the trade to make an accusation that it’s insider trading: you can make it simply because you don’t find the trade credible given the market conditions. Even if you did know who it is naming the individual/organisation (or not) is irrelevant if it becomes a matter of public record once filed with the SEC.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

I think we're probably straying off topic here, so lets wait and see what happens in the aftermath of the CBS/Viacom remerger and pick things up again then if something happens with Discovery.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Discovery would be a good buy for Comcast , whether they’ll go after it though is anyone’s guess.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

We saw an story last night on Bloomberg HD (Virgin UK Channel 609) that AT&T maybe about to drop CBS from their network over in the USA.

Bloomberg HD says that talks are 'on going'.

Re: John Malone/Liberty/VM General News Thread
 

Vodafone's purchase of LG's companies in Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania, has been cleared by the EC. Once the deal is completed, it will leave a much slimmed down LG with VM as the only business of note now:

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/lib...pe-1203271523/

Could this be the catalyst that Malone needs to then merge VM with his American cable interests?