Advanced Television

Ziggo, Liberty deal nears?

January 24, 2014

ziggoDutch operator Ziggo has said takeover discussions with Liberty Global were “on-going and progressing.”

At its Q4 and full year earnings announcement, Ziggo said that discussion with Liberty had continued since December, and “have progressed.” However, it cautioned “there is no certainty that any agreement will be reached.”

“In view of on-going discussions with Liberty Global on a potential acquisition of our company, we cannot propose a final dividend for the financial year 2013 at this moment. We will announce a statement regarding any final dividend before the AGM,” Ziggo said, hinting that the matter will be concluded ahead of its planned AGM in April.

Ziggo’s Q4 results saw revenue climb 2.8 per cent year-on-year to €394.0 million and adjusted EBITDA increase 2.1 per cent to €222.8 million. Full year revenue and adjusted EBITDA were up 1.8 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively.

Among its operational highlights for full year 2013, Ziggo said that total internet subscribers were up 6.8 per cent compared to 2012, and that it has seen a strong increase in WiFi coverage since April, with over 1.1 million WiFiSpots activated.
Ziggo added that following its mid-September launch of Ziggo Mobile, this service is on track with 33,000 subscribers as of December 31 – “slightly ahead of plan.”

But in pay-TV the firm fared less well. For the full year, Ziggo said the number of subscribers to digital Pay TV was down by 64,000 “partly due to the difficult macro-environment and the switch from subscription based to on-demand based video consumption.”

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