Advanced Television

Liberty Global ups KBW bid

March 21, 2011

By Colin Mann

The future of German cable MSO KBW – put up for sale by its Swedish private equity firm owner EQT – is in the balance as Liberty Global raises its bid to $4.5 billion in an effort to beat off CVC Capital Partners who are said to have tabled $4.17 billion.

A third bid had been submitted by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. EQT had also been considering the possibility of an IPO of the operator, the third-largest German cabler. Any sale to Liberty Global could attract the attention of German antitrust regulators, given Liberty’s 2009 acquisition of Unitymedia, the country’s second-largest cable operator.

Categories: Broadband, Business, Cable, Headline, M&A