Liberty Global shares fell slightly in early trading Monday after a strong rise on Friday after speculation that U.K. mobile giant Vodafone was again considering a takeover of the international cable giant headed by U.S. cable legend John Malone.
According to reports in Bloomberg News citing unnamed sources, Vodafone was holding “internal deliberations” about the possibility of making a run at Liberty Global. The report said no formal talks were being held between the parties and that valuation and regulatory issues remain. Spurring the decision was British Telecom’s proposal to purchase either Spanish telecom provider Telefonica’s O2 or EE, the wireless company jointly owned by Orange SA and Deutsche Telekom, giving the wireline communications giant a mobile foothold in Europe.
Liberty Global is the largest cable operator in Europe and has about 27 million subscribers across the continent and in Latin America.
