THE DAY OF £110bn TAKEOVER DEALS
DEAL ONE Vodafone’s £16billion bid for US cable giant
VODAFONe is set to make a £16bn swoop on a US rival in a bid to lead a massive expansion n across europe.
The telecoms company will snap up large swathes of Liberty Global’s ’s cable network across the continent. .
This latest takeover comes amid a flurry of deal making across the globe, e, with many being struck in the UK, K, including a £45bn swoop by Japan’s ’s Takeda on London-listed drug maker er Shire (see panel, right).
Yesterday, American cable giant Comcast, mas which owns Universal Pictures, was also rumoured to be preparing a £45bn bn siege of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century ry Fox ( below right), while Clydesdale and nd Yorkshire Banking Group offered £1.6bn for Virgin Money ( below).
In total the deals could be worth around £110bn.
Vodafone’s expected bid for cable assets in Germany, the Czech Republic, hungary and Romania would strengthen its hand as it vies for dominance with telecoms powerhouse Deutsche Telekom. Both companies are trying to consolidate telecoms networks that span the continent.
Vodafone has already struck cable deals in Britain, Germany and Spain, while Deutsche Telekom – which is 32pc owned by the German state – is the largest shareholder of BT and controls assets in several european countries, stretching from the Netherlands to Greece.
Liberty Global, which is controlled by John Malone, the so-called ‘cable cowboy’, is reportedly keen to quit the market because it believes it has become fragmented.
The firms revealed they were in talks in February, with the deal reportedly codenamed Project Scorpio by insiders. But Deutsche Telekom’s boss, Tim hoettges, has vowed to oppose the plans and is expected to lobby German politicians to block them over fears it would give Vodafone too much power.
earlier this year, the German, who is on football team Bayern Munich’s supervisory board, entered into a war of words with Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao over the Liberty sale.
The 55-year- old said: ‘I find it from a competitive perspective unacceptable. The dominance in the TV market, combined with a telecommunication provider, is something I personally find very tricky for democracy.’
The comments spurred Colao to confront his long-time rival at a dinner in Barcelona. ‘I told him he has made a big mistake’, the Italian, 56, said afterwards.
At a press conference, he added: ‘here you have Deutsche Telekom, the largest european telecoms company by market capitalisation, with the highest number of accesses into homes in the best and most important european market. Using the expression “shutting down competition” is something that, if I were him, I would not do.’
Analysts have suggested Vodafone’s chance of success depends on whether competition officials in Germany or the eU rule on the deal, with regulators in Brussels thought to be more likely to approve it.
The Liberty-Vodafone deal will not include Virgin Media, which is owned by Liberty.