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back to article Virgin Media daddy Liberty Global swoops on Cable & Wireless Communications

Liberty Global – the owner of UK telco Virgin Media – has agreed to buy Caribbean-based operator Cable & Wireless Communications for £3.5bn ($5.3bn). The cash and stock deal extends Cable Cowboy John Malone's lasso into Latin America. CWC said that the buyout would "enhance customer benefits" and allow the business to grow as …

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  1. Bob H
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    Not to be confused with C&W Worldwide which was bought by Vodafone ages ago.

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    1. paulf
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      Nor confused with the entity "Cable & Wireless communications" which was the UK cable TV bit of C&W plc which was sold to NTL in 2000.

      I suppose that means Liberty Global has, at different times and indirectly, purchased two separate companies called "Cable & Wireless Communications".

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      1. BenR
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        Confused me too

        Thanks for that - i was a little confused and thinking deja vu, even after having read the article!

        Although it does bring me on to my next question of.... so what?

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    2. Cab
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      So which Cable & Wireless was it that sold their cable bit to NTL, that merged with Telewest, that became Virgin Media ?

      And do we care ?

      0 1 Reply
      1. K
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        FAIL

        "So which Cable & Wireless was it that sold their cable bit to NTL .."

        Fail for not reading paulf's comments above posted 20 minutes earlier lol!

        1 0 Reply
  2. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    Watershed indeed...

    Never will so many tears be shed over such crap customer service.

    2 1 Reply
    1. Bob H
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      Re: Watershed indeed...

      Are you sure you've got the right C&W? Although I believe the Caribbean services aren't fantastic either.

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      1. Really Anonymous Coward
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        Re: Watershed indeed...

        As others have said, the original Cable & Wireless split itself into CWW and CWC, the former was consumed by Vodafone pretty quick. Leaving CWC as the only company claiming succession to all the history.

        So for more takeover mind-bending: CWC, which traded as LIME throughout the Caribbean, recently took over regional broadband/TV competitor Columbus Communications (trades as Flow), a major investor in which was ... John Malone.

        It's currently rebranding all it's consumer services to Flow (possibly due to LIME's reputation), and was corporately rebranding as "C&W Communications", though the latter at least seems doubly redundant now!

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        1. Anonymous Coward
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          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Watershed indeed...

          CWC decided to call themselves Lime in the Caribbean which after working for them was very apt...

          To 'Lime' in the Caribbean means to do 'jack shit' in English parlance.

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          1. chris 17 Silver badge
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            Re: Watershed indeed...

            @ac

            To lime means to relax and chill out, as in what happens when you slice some limes and put in your gin, rum or cold lager, chillax and have a little fun. If that is doing jack shit, then you need to get out more.

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  3. Anon

    The cable giant will...

    ... put up prices to pay off CWC's net debt of $2.7bn.

    2 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The cable giant will...

      ... put up prices to pay off CWC's net debt of $2.7bn.

      Actually, its worse than that. The debt they can just continue to service, but Liberty Global are paying $5.3bn for a company with net assets of a tad under $1.5bn, so that's $3.8bn of goodwill on Liberty Global's balance sheet. As a cash and stock deal LG have to incur the cost of capital/dividends on the acquisition price, and they need to amortise the goodwill (ie progressively write it down against profits). So the unlucky customers of C&W can indeed expect big price increases in return for nothing, and the total costs are a fair bit bigger than the C&W debt.

      Virginmedia customers in the UK know what happens when the Cable Cowboy buys a company, having enjoyed years of 5hit deals, rubbish customer service, and inflation busting price rises.

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