Liberty Global eyes up O2

[nodrogd]

LG has signalled its interest in taking over O2 if the deal with 3 is blocked by the EU, which it now has:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/...ee-is-blocked/

[BenMcr]

I'm not sure it's that definite. All that Mike Fries has said is that it would (paraphrasing here) stupid to not consider it if the opportunity arose.

However I'd wait to see if things go any further than that.

[denphone]

Personally l cannot see it happening for now.

[23prince]

It's a shame - 3 would have given giffgaff customers something to praise them for - but they are now left with the rubbish speeds the O2 network gives them.

It would have worked well indeed.

[qasdfdsaq]

Oh no.

[Ignitionnet]

Transparent attempt to prod Vodafone into moving on VM.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Transparent attempt to prod Vodafone into moving on VM.

Do you think? I don't see it myself. There may be situations in other European countries where a tie up may work (Netherlands).

But not in the UK.

The only thing Vodafone have of interest to LG in the UK is their RAN. LG don't need their fibre network or their global subsea cable network.

If LG can get their own RAN at a decent price from O2, there's no need to deal with Vodafone in the UK.

And the UK i.e. VM is LGs jewel.

[Kushan]

When BT first eyed up EE and Three started looking at O2, I remarked something along the lines of "The entire mobile landscape will be completely different in 5 years time". I still think that will be the case.

Three might not be merging with O2, but some big player is almost certainly going to buy them and no doubt Virgin will be interested in the outcome, be it them or someone else.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Kushan

Three might not be merging with O2, but some big player is almost certainly going to buy them

Which is going to change what exactly?

O2 is f***** without more spectrum and nobody who has any spectrum is allowed to touch them.

[Horizon]

I like playing the who will merge with who game, I got it totally wrong last time, so here goes again....

I reckon Sky will buy O2 and then make a grab for Talktalk.

I think Vodafone and Liberty have all but agreed to merge, they just can't agree on how to do it. So they're having their experiment in Holland first as a precursor to a full blown merger in a few years time.

If Liberty were to grab 02, I don't see how Vodafone would welcome that as a major competitor to them in the UK.

---------- Post added at 21:34 ---------- Previous post was at 21:32 ----------

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Transparent attempt to prod Vodafone into moving on VM.

Attempt by whom?

[bubblegun]

Originally Posted by Horizon

I like playing the who will merge with who game, I got it totally wrong last time, so here goes again....

I reckon Sky will buy O2 and then make a grab for Talktalk.

I think Vodafone and Liberty have all but agreed to merge, they just can't agree on how to do it. So they're having their experiment in Holland first as a precursor to a full blown merger in a few years time.

If Liberty were to grab 02, I don't see how Vodafone would welcome that as a major competitor to them in the UK.

---------- Post added at 21:34 ---------- Previous post was at 21:32 ----------

Attempt by whom?

Would it not be more likely that 21st Century Fox would buy O2 (as a spoiler to LG since Murdoch and Malone are no longer on the best of terms) with favourable terms for Sky UK using their network then a view to merging them when they eventually buy the total Sky Europe business?
Sky are quite a lean business (debt wise) and I don't think they'd want to be saddled with the amount of debt that an O2 deal would bring.

[Horizon]

...absolutely. When I say Sky, I usually mean the Murdoch empire as a whole. The only caveat to that being, is, I've heard a lot of talk about Sky wanting to get into mobile but I've heard nothing specific that has said that Murdoch wants to get into mobile.