Buyout firms set their eye on Virgin Media

[popper]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle2007919.ece
"
From The Times
June 30, 2007


Buyout firms set their eye on Virgin Media



Elizabeth Judge, Telecoms Correspondent


Virgin Media has been informally approached by a potential buyer for the $8 billion (£3.9 billion) group.

The television and telecoms group, which was recently publicly castigated by its leading investors, is being eyed up by buyout firms understood to include Carlyle.

The interest has prompted Virgin to instruct banks to work alongside its traditional adviser, Goldman Sachs.

However, discussions about a potential sale are said to be at a very early stage and people familiar with the process cautioned that it was not certain any deal could be pulled off.

A private equity consortium including Providence Equity Partners, Blackstone, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Cinven made a £10 billion approach to the cable group last summer.

That approach, thought to have been pitched at about $30 dollars a share, failed in part because of reluctance by Bill Huff, then a key shareholder, to hand over the company for less than $32 a share.

Since then, the cable group, which was formed last year by joining the former NTL:Telewest with Virgin Mobile, has continued to struggle to transform its fortunes. Yesterday its Nasdaq-listed shares were trading at just $24."...

[Nedkelly]

I just wish there was some stabiltiy in the company with all the talk of buyouts and more job cuts .

[popper]

Originally Posted by Nedkelly

I just wish there was some stabiltiy in the company with all the talk of buyouts and more job cuts .

at the moment it seems its still up in the air, it might not even go through, or if it did ,weather branson etal would cash in now he's up for the brown collective after the demise of the DTI
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/20...l#post34340022

would he be looking to keep his TV dreams alive after all this time, and hold onto his VM shares,i think he might, but will this new twice yearly sitting post give him more fish to fry elswere? instead.

as for the Carlyle group etc, they are mostly still US based companys i seem to remember (although its been a while since i skimed the info so might have got that wrong) so would the Uk business still suffer as it has in the past with long distance boardroom antics etc?.

[Toto]

Speculation, always good for rumour, and the odd jump in share price

[Incomplete]

Originally Posted by Toto

Speculation, always good for rumour, and the odd jump in share price

About the only thing that has made it go up recently

[Paul M]

Story Link (taken from another thread).

http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/...IN-CARLYLE.XML

[LiamTG]

Sell it. Let's face it they would probably provide better customer service, more reliable services and possibly HDTV.

LTG

[Toto]

Originally Posted by LiamTG

Sell it. Let's face it they would probably provide better customer service, more reliable services and possibly HDTV.

LTG

How?

[kirk1690]

Well Thats All We Need A Private Equity Buyout, Asset Strippers And Parasites!! Jobs Will Go And There Will Be Very Little Service Left After They Break The Company Up And Sell It Off....

[Hugh]

Originally Posted by LiamTG

Sell it. Let's face it they would probably provide better customer service, more reliable services and possibly HDTV.

LTG

Like private equity firms "improved" the AA and Birds Eye?
AA
"Within months of buying the AA for £1.75bn, the private equity owners Permira and CVC Capital had cut 3,400 jobs.
Permira, the largest private equity group in Europe, last year bought Birds Eye from Unilever and pledged to keep workers' employment terms for at least three years. Within five months it had closed a plant in Hull at the cost of 600 jobs."

Originally Posted by foreverwar

Like private equity firms "improved" the AA and Birds Eye?
AA
"Within months of buying the AA for £1.75bn, the private equity owners Permira and CVC Capital had cut 3,400 jobs.
Permira, the largest private equity group in Europe, last year bought Birds Eye from Unilever and pledged to keep workers' employment terms for at least three years. Within five months it had closed a plant in Hull at the cost of 600 jobs."

Absolutely, a company who will borrow money to buy another company that already owes money, transfers their debt to the newly acquired firm - then demands better 'performance', usually the cost of running the show - so staff are dumped to show a quick 'improvement'

[RizzyKing]

If you think VM are crap just wait till these guys if successful take over then you will really know poor service. But having said that lets remember private equity groups like to do this they announce their intention to take something over and then panic jittery shareholders into selling so they can buy those shares. I think it is unlikely that this deal will go ahead i hope to god it doesn't.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I think it is the best thing for viewers to have another come in and run things, as l think that Sir Richard, has had enough, and just wants his money back for what he has put in, When the service was being run in my area, it was under Telewest, alright you had ' teething ' problems, but now it is NTL/ VIRGIN it has gont down hill, it has a terrible colour format, and service is always breaking down, and the directors should all resign and let someone else run it properly, the business with Sky doesn't help, but l think this is all down to ' who rules the roost' and refused to move, and just think Tiscali now have the basics. just goes to prove that there is a major problem between them and this is why, it needs a new broom to run.

[Horace]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

If you think VM are crap just wait till these guys if successful take over then you will really know poor service. But having said that lets remember private equity groups like to do this they announce their intention to take something over and then panic jittery shareholders into selling so they can buy those shares. I think it is unlikely that this deal will go ahead i hope to god it doesn't.

You don't really understand how the stock-market works do you? A possible buy-out would have the opposite effect, pushing the share price upwards. The problems for the shareholders come if the buy-out fails or they back out of the bid with shares often falling below their original level.

As for how it will affect VM customers, I doubt it would make a huge amount of difference. Most of the problems currently being suffered seem to be as a result of the merger between TW and NTL.

[sollp]

Anyone mentioned the Switch Tech's going over to BT Wholesale?

Just the start i imagine of them getting rid of certain parts of the company.

They'll be getting rid of the headend Tech's to Sky next