LONDON (Alliance News) - The chief executive of Vodafone Group PLC has said the UK telecoms group would consider making a bid for Liberty Global PLC "for the right price", Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Speaking following an investor conference in New York, Vittorio Colao said Vodafone may consider a "transformational" acquisition in the "longer term", Bloomberg said, citing a note from Goldman Sachs analyst Tim Boddy.
Vodafone has spent the past two years buying up cable and broadband providers in Germany and Spain in a bid to stem declining revenue from its wireless business. That acquisition drive has put pressure on Liberty Global, the Australia-based group headed by John Malone, which owns cable assets in European markets in which Vodafone operates, including in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, Bloomberg said.
The pair have competed to buy cable assets in Europe in the past, with Vodafone beating Liberty in the race to buy Kabel Deutschland Holding AG in Germany last year for EUR10.5 billion.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-11/vodafone-ceo-says-liberty-could-be-good-fit-for-right-price-.html
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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