Cable industry set for mergers and acquisitions

Website: Rapid TV News

Liberty Global’s CTO Shane O’Neill, speaking at the Cable Congress on Mar 4 predicted a year ahead of merger and acquisition activity. He is not alone with these thoughts.

First of all there are his fellow colleagues at Liberty Global, sitting on a $3bn war chest of cash and a desire to ‘buy now at low, low prices’. Of course, his very comments will harden some of the prices, but he said central and eastern Europe was a specific target for Liberty.

He stated that Ziggo (the largest cableco in the Netherlands, and a major competitor to Liberty-owned UPC) was likely to come to market over the next year or so. However, O’Neill ruled out any interest in Kabel Deutschland, especially given Liberty’s stake in Unity Media.

His comments come fresh on the back of similar advice from Screen Digest, which says a “number of European cable companies are likely to change hands – or depending on market conditions – launch IPOs within the coming year.