Cable giant NTL has today confirmed its consideration of a £835 million bid for Virgin Mobile, enabling the firm to offer Britain’s first “quadruple play” services of fixed and mobile phone lines, broadband internet access and digital television.
The move would also lay an infrastructure for NTL to offer more advanced mobile services, such as mobile television, in the future.
Clearly designed to put pressure on multi-channel heavyweight BSkyB, the deal has been given the backing of Richard Branson, who has agreed to swap his 72% holding in the mobile firm for NTL stock if the deal goes ahead.
Under the terms of NTL’s bid, Virgin Mobile shareholders would be offered 0.09298 shares in NTL for each Virgin share held, with a cash alternative of 323 pence per share.
The deal is subject to NTL completing its £3.4 billion merger with cable rival Telewest, and could 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.
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