US Cable Giant Liberty Global buys Virgin Media

Originally Posted by Pierre

if there are numerous reports then let's have few links?
like what?

Have you ever tried to downgrade your sky package?

Go onto their website and try and find where says how to do it?

Good luck.


What technological limitations would they be?


That's just it, you don't take a quarters results you take 6 years of results.

Increasing revenues
Decreasing debt
Increasing share price


That is so laughable, that I'm still laughing, and will probably continue laughing for most of the day.

Originally Posted by Qtx

:
Virgin were doing average at best. Without being brought out recently, I would have predicted them out of the game in around 2 years.

That is a rather silly point of view, why would liberty pay 15 billion for something when they could have waited until to was on its backside and got it for virtually nothing?

[MovedGoalPosts]

Everyone: Avoid the personal remarks. Just because you disagree, and that you consider a poster has a one sided viewpoint doesn't mean that you can goad them into a reply. Remember they too think your viewpoint is one sided.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Qtx

That is a wild and unsubstantiated claim from someone with no inside knowledge. Making an opinion sound like fact does not make it fact, even if you have a strange infatuated blind love for the company you are making the claims about.

And the same about you as well

That is a wild and unsubstantiated claim from someone with no inside knowledge and have a strange infatuated blind hatred about the company you are posting about

the above fits most of your posts about VM perfectly

So if you are willing to post unsubstantiated bull excreta like that expect people to post there responce

I DO work for them and i have spoken to my colleges about this, You don't work for VM and you have not spoken to my colleges about this

[brynhyfryd]

The reason that the thinking of leaving us option was so popular was because it was the only way to get through to a UK call centre.

Hopefully Liberty will move all call centre jobs back to the UK as this is my biggest gripe with the company as a whole and I would happily sacrifice higher BB speeds and move to another provider for a UK only call centre if VM continue on their current path.

I also hope LG invest in new tech and expand the current footprint as well as expand their TV offering.

[Mick Fisher]

Originally Posted by brynhyfryd

The reason that the thinking of leaving us option was so popular was because it was the only way to get through to a UK call centre.

Hopefully Liberty will move all call centre jobs back to the UK as this is my biggest gripe with the company as a whole and I would happily sacrifice higher BB speeds and move to another provider for a UK only call centre if VM continue on their current path.

I also hope LG invest in new tech and expand the current footprint as well as expand their TV offering.

That would certainly be a step in the right direction.

A hub that worked as expected would also help but massive investment in the network to be able to get rid of TM would be the clincher.

Alas I feel the scale of the massive investment in the network to achieve this aim to be a step to far for VM.

Nevertheless it will be fascinating to see what the future holds for VM now they are losing the BB trump card.

Originally Posted by Qtx

It does indeed help their portfolio but the statement that virgin was doing very well is more than questionable.

The last quarter saw an extremely aggressive retentions department trying to stop customers leaving as if their life depended on it. There are numerous reports of this and lies being told simply to stop customers from leaving. Experienced this first hand too and the lies virgin staff told was shocking. That same last quarter virgin moved the "Thinking of leaving us" option from their phone system and hid it away under "Thinking of moving house". That option had been in their menu system in the same place for years but hiding it away under an option you would not necessarily choose if you just wanted to terminate your connection was in my opinion desperation toi stop more customers leaving.

So tactics like that to make a quarters results look a certain way but the underlying problems are there still. Like the limitations of virgins broadband technology. Even talktalk offers a faster upload speed than virgin and I don't see virgin competing in a cloud environment future due to this. Already they are losing ground here and adding on more traffic management will push customers over to fibre alternatives like BT and Sky which have no traffic management or limits/thresholds or whatever.

The bottom line is taking quarter results as a sign that a company will do well in the future is just plain silly. You have to look at the whole picture. Look at how virgin have been broke and not able to invest in their network properly, look at how they have worded quarterly statements differently between quarters to hide worse figures, look at how the landscape is changing and where virgins weaknesses are.

Virgin were doing average at best. Without being brought out recently, I would have predicted them out of the game in around 2 years.

Even the biggest companies go out of business and up until that point they are trying to convince the world they are ok and doing well

Look at how virgin have been broke and not able to invest in their network properly, look at how they have worded quarterly statements differently between quarters to hide worse figures, look at how the landscape is changing and where virgins weaknesses are.

When were Virgin broke?? Anyone else remember this? Last I heard someone wants to pay 15 billion for them, that's a lot for a business that's broke.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by brynhyfryd

The reason that the thinking of leaving us option was so popular was because it was the only way to get through to a UK call centre.

.

The reason I started using 'the thinking of leaving us option' was because you couldn't guarantee that the normal customer service knew what they were talking about. I've been told incorrect pricing, and had to put them right. There was confusion over existing loyalty discounts when Tivo launched. They told me that I had to write to the CEO office when I was being overcharged for my services; that's when I phoned Retentions. I told them upfront that I wasn't leaving, but wanted the overcharge fixed and they did it in minutes. They were the ones who told me to always phone Retentions from then on, which I have done.

[MaverickJesus]

Originally Posted by Top banana

Look at how virgin have been broke and not able to invest in their network properly, look at how they have worded quarterly statements differently between quarters to hide worse figures, look at how the landscape is changing and where virgins weaknesses are.

When were Virgin broke?? Anyone else remember this? Last I heard someone wants to pay 15 billion for them, that's a lot for a business that's broke.

Ask RBS how their leveraged takeover of ABN AMRO went. A company paying a shedload of borrowed money for another company does make it a financially sound deal by default.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by MaverickJesus

Ask RBS how their leveraged takeover of ABN AMRO went. A company paying a shedload of borrowed money for another company does make it a financially sound deal by default.

l think you will find the RBS went belly up because of some deeply irresponsible risk taking which is not in the culture at either LG or VM.

[thunderlips]

do LG have to pay virgin to use name : virgin media? when they take over ?

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by thunderlips

do LG have to pay virgin to use name : virgin media? when they take over ?

No they won't as Virgin Media are staying as they are, LG will own VM but nothing else changes.

Originally Posted by thunderlips

do LG have to pay virgin to use name : virgin media? when they take over ?

Ok, Virginmedia is still a company with its own profits and loses and debt etc so Virginmedia will still have agreements it has to honor.

It may eventually be part of a larger "company" but it still has its own liability's. Just like how FORD Europe can be losing money and cut jobs, but FORD usa Can be making record profits and take on 1000 workers.

So if Virginmedia pay to use the Virgin brand then it will come from Virginmedias pocket not Libert cable. Just like if Virginmedia went bankrupt it would not also bring down Liberty or UPC/

[thunderlips]

ok thanks guys !

[|Kippa|]

If Liberty did buy VM would they have the resouces to seriously invest in the network infrastructure? BT spent billions upgrading their network and are reaping the rewards now with BT Infinity. VM on the other hand appear to be increasing the connection speeds without seriously upgrading the network and using traffic management to fill the gap.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by |Kippa|

VM on the other hand appear to be increasing the connection speeds without seriously upgrading the network and using traffic management to fill the gap.

VM have actually relaxed the traffic management as part of the upgrades

The tiers below 30Mbit have 75% management, the 30Mbit and above tiers all have 50% management

So that means a customer that was on XL 20 and was getting managed down to 5Mbit as part of the STM policy, is now on 60Mbit and gets managed to 30Mbit.

They wouldn't be able to do that if there wasn't also investment in the network