Liberty Global to acquire Cable&Wireless in £3.5bn deal

(ShareCast News) - Liberty Global reached an agreement on Monday to purchase Cable&Wireless Communications in a cash and stock deal valuing the carrier at £3.5bn ($5.3bn).The transaction - which valued the London-listed carrier at 10.7 operating earnings - was set to extend the reach of his enterprise further into Latin America.In the past decade, the US company led by billionaire John Malone had spent over $50bn buying-out rivals in Europe.Over the summer Malone had created a tracking stock for Liberty Global's assets in Chile and Puerto Rico called LiLAC.In October, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg he might spin-off the unit.As of 19:24 shares in NASDAQ-listed Liberty Global were falling 1.72% to reach $44.57.