Following its acquisition of an initial 15 percent stake in Ziggo, Liberty Global called the acquisition opportunistic and strategic. It now seems that it wants to acquire all Ziggo shares. The current holding of 28.5 percent is still below the 30 percent threshold that makes a public offer for the remaining shares mandatory, but the timing is right.
Liberty Global has completed the acquisition of Virgin Media, abandoned its efforts to acquire Germany’s largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland and is busy trying to sell off its content division Chellomedia. These circumstances offer financial room to purchase Ziggo’s remaining shares as Chellomedia is rumoured to be worth around EUR 1 billion.
The Ziggo acquisition will not occur without regulatory involvement and stringent conditions about opening both cable networks for third parties, as Telecompaper already wrote in March 2013. This is not likely to stop Liberty Global though, as regulatory opposition was no barrier to its German subsidiary Unitymedia acquiring Kabel BW, despite stringent conditions set by the German cartel office.
As such it seems only a (short) matter of time before Liberty Global launches a bid for the remaining Ziggo shares.
