Liberty-Vodafone deal stalls

Liberty Global chairman John Malone is still seeking some sort of deal with Vodafone, but has so far failed to find an agreement that he could propose to shareholders, the cable mogul has told Bloomberg.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Malone said the pair had not been able to come up with an asset swap or combination that would work for both partners after a number of months of talks.

Malone said that while “there’s a price at which Liberty could be bought”, a full merger or acquisition was unlikely.

Liberty Global and mobile giant Vodafone are major players in the European cable business following the latter’s acquisition of Kabel Deutschland and Ono. The pair have combined annual revenues of over US$80 billion and a combined market value of US$130 billion.

Talk of a possible deal between the pair has focused on Germany, where both have cable assets, but where a combination could be opposed by Deutsche Telekom on competition grounds.

Other territories where the pair could combine forces include the UK, where Liberty Global owns cable operator Virgin Media and Vodafone is major mobile player.