Confirmed on Sky News now
Virgin Media Eyes Sale To US-Based Cable Firm
Virgin Media has confirmed it is in talks about a possible sale of the company to the US cable group Liberty Global.
Almost 5 millions households in the UK subscribe to Virgin's broadband, television and landline services.
Virgin also has some 3 million mobile phone customers in Britain.
Sir Richard Branson owns a 3% stake in Virgin Media and the company is listed in New York, with a secondary listing in London.
The company's share price soared this morning on news of the late-stage talks, with the price up 14% in early trading.
US-based Liberty Global operates in 13 territories and has sought to expand its base in European countries.
Virgin Media is the second pay-TV group in Britain behind BSkyB, the parent company of Sky News, and has been valued at around $20bn (£13bn).
The talks were confirmed by Virgin Media in a brief statement.
It currently has around $9bn (£5.7bn) of debt.
Liberty has recently increased its stake in Belgian operator Telenet to 58 percent and owns other consumer brandsacross Europe including UPC, Unitymedia, Kabel BW and VTR.
It also owns a content and channels group called Chellomedia.
http://news.sky.com/story/1047765/vi...sed-cable-firm