Liberty Media has withdrawn its application to the German Cartel Office to acquire a stake in Kirch Group’s pay-TV operation from News Corporation (see Murdoch In Talks To Sell Stake In Kirch To Liberty Media) in a bid to become the country’s largest cable operator.
The withdrawal makes approval of Liberty’s £3.5bn acquisition from Deutsche Telekom of six regional cable networks more likely by allaying concern that Liberty would become the dominant operator in German television. Liberty is also seeking approval to buy leading cable network operator Telecolumbus from Deutsche Bank AG.
In a statement Liberty said that it had concluded it was better to pursue a commercial relationship with Kirch than to take a direct stake but did not comment on the other applications pending with the German regulators.
