Liberty Global offers sops on $4.4-bn takeover of German cable group Kabel BW
22 Oct 2011
US-based international cable operator run by billionaire John Malone, Liberty Global has offered concessions to the German regulator to gain its approval for its €3.16-billion ($4.4 billion) takeover of German cable group Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg (Kabel BW).
The country's antitrust regulator, the German Federal Cartel Office spokesman Kay Weidner told Bloomberg over the phone that the office has received concessions from Liberty Global.
The regulator also extended the deadline for reviewing the deal from 11 November to 15 December.
''We will also submit our preliminary view of the issue to the companies next week,'' Weidner told the news agency.
After acquiring Germany's second-largest cable network company Unitymedia GmbH for $3 billion (€2 billion) in November 2009, (See: US cable operator Liberty Global to acquire Germany's Unitymedia for $3 billion) Liberty Global signed a deal to buy Kabel BW, Germany's third-largest cable- television operator in March this year from Swedish buyout firm EQT, for $4.4 billion.
In June, the European Union regulator asked its German counterpart to review the deal as it felt that it would be in a better position to probe the harmful effect of the deal in the country.