NTL’s plans to create a ‘quadruple play’ business with the acquisition of Virgin Mobile have hit a stumbling block, as Virgin’s board rejected an £817 million bid, despite the deal having majority shareholder Sir Richard Branson’s backing.
The deal, clearly designed to put pressure on multi-channel heavyweight BSkyB, was unveiled earlier this week, with NTL offering Virgin Mobile shareholders 0.09298 shares in NTL for each Virgin share held, with a cash alternative of 323 pence per share.
The suggested deal was subject to NTL completing its £3.4 billion merger with cable rival Telewest, and would create a cross-platform media giant, with 2.5 million broadband customers, 4.3 million fixed-line telephone accounts, more than 5 million mobile phone customers providing revenues in excess of 4 billion.