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back to article Who's the daddy of Virgin Media now? That would be Liberty Global

US cable giant Liberty Global has completed its takeover of Virgin Media in a $24bn (£15.5bn) cash deal. VM boss Neil Berkett - now £42m richer - has been replaced by one-time News Corp man Tom Mockridge. The telco's new CEO told the city that he was glad to be "joining the company at this important inflection point in its …

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  1. The BigYin

    So...

    ...when do the DNS look-ups get moved to the NSA bunker?

    And what, if anything, does this actually mean for VM customers?

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    1. Professor Clifton Shallot
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      Re: So...

      Fingers crossed it means ditching the awful support service (not you lot in Bristol, if you are reading, but the offshore part).

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So...

      What does it mean to VM Customers?

      ALL the data relating to your phone calls made in the UK plus all the webspages you visit, plus all your IM chat plus what TV shows you watch is now controlled by a US Company and subject to US laws and intercept by the FEDS(who given recent releases care little about US Laws anyway) and there is sod all you or HMG can do about it.

      Get ready for the Black Helicopters and loads of FED in beige raincoats to come knocking/kicking in your door if you step out of the line that Uncle Sam is drawing in the sand.

      Paranoid? Yep, you bet.

      They are, so we should be as well. They don't care who they trample on all in the name of keeping the US safe from us Aliens (viz, all non US citizens are terrorists).

      10 1
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Ummm do try to keep up eh?

        Virgin Media (AKA NTL on the US markets) always was a US company.

        NTL were in and out of chapter 11 more than once. They had a shit name so paid the beardie one for the use of the Virgin brand. Nothing changed behind the scenes, only difference apart from the branding was that the beardie one got richer for doing bugger all.

        tl;dr no change, NTL always was a US company so customers have always been subject to NSA monitoring....

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        1. jonathanb Silver badge
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          Re: Ummm do try to keep up eh?

          NTL Telewest merged with Virgin Mobile, which was owned by Beardie, so that's where they got the rights to use the name from, and Beardie does/(did) own some shares in the combined entity.

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          1. Anonymous Coward
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            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Ummm do try to keep up eh?

            They bought the Virgin Mobile business (which IIRC is/was just a virtual T-Mobile service?).

            I think you'll find that the Virgin parent company gets paid a fee each year to allow NTL-Telewest-Virgin Mobile to use the brand. I expect that will change in the next couple of years but for now the beardie one does get paid a royalty fee for the use of the name.

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      2. andreas koch
        Reply Icon
        Unhappy

        Re: So...

        >

        . . .

        if you step out of the line that Uncle Sam is drawing in the sand.

        . . .

        <

        Don't forget that the line will not be drawn until after you stepped over it.

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      3. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: So...

        It's only subject to US Laws & Intercepts if the data transits the US. All VM's data is stored in the UK. The exception "may" email as I believe they now use Gmail

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        1. The BigYin
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          Re: So...

          "I believe they now use Gmail"

          They do, and Google has always been reading you mail (NSA or no) so they can profile and advertise at you.

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So...

      It would mean the question: When does the price rise kick in?

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    4. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So...

      What does it mean for VM customers? Well it's an in-house joke at VM that one of the reasons they chose the name Virgin is because it's the customer that gets screwed

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  2. smudge
    Big Brother

    Installing updates...

    Installation of New Security Adaptor technology now initiated :)

    4 0
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Return to sender

    No doubt their monthly mailshots will still plop onto the doormat - in spite of VM Customer Services assuring me that my address is marked as "do not send mailshots". Anything with the Virgin brand name is avoided like the plague.

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  4. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Turning around a successful company?

    >" important inflection point in its development"

    Inflection point The point on a curve where it's curvature changes sign. E.g. from negative to positive, or from positive to negative

    So presuming that until now VM has been on the up (as it's 6 month share price history would indicate), it sounds like this guy has realised it's peaked and now is planning to manage it into the ground.

    Odd way to do business,

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Turning around a successful company?

      Pete 2

      > Inflection point The point on a curve where it's curvature changes sign ...

      > ... it's peaked ...

      It is the curvature (or concavity) that has changed sign not the slope - so it is not a local maxima/minima. Example y = x^3.

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    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
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      Headmaster

      Re: Turning around a successful company?

      Actually, if the curvature (2nd derivative) changes sign, the 1st derivative went through an extremum, but the overall trend in the curve continues..

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  5. Crisp

    Tom Mockridge

    The guy that replaced Rebekah Brooks after the phone hacking scandal is now in charge of one of the UK's largest phone companies.

    Something is raising a red flag here, but I just can't quite put my finger on it...

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  6. Anonymous IV

    An end to some of the major shambles, perhaps?

    Maybe the new Chief Exec will sort out at least the following:

    1) the great email domain name rationalisation débacle, which was due to be sorted out several years ago, and so postponed that it doesn't even seem to be mentioned in the forums recently (has everyone forgotten the broken promises?)

    2) the partly-working SuperHub scandal, successive firmware levels each making matters slightly better, but still wireless is not completely sorted. Perhaps the new SuperHub will be the answer (once everyone gets it - free?)

    3) completely-UK-based Customer Support. Fortunately it's been a few years since I've needed to talk to Customer Services...

    Thank heaven VM broadband usually works.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: An end to some of the major shambles, perhaps?

      "Thank heaven VM broadband usually works"

      Usually, yes. On one occasion I had two full days without service. But they put a credit on my next bill after I complained.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    good time to sell

    Now that BT Infinity are at last installing FTTC at a rate which suggests they'll get 90% of the population covered in 3-4 years, that's more than where VM cable goes at the moment.

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