Liberty Media [LMG.a] becomes biggest UnitedGlobalCom shrholder
Remember, LMG.a owns LDIG
Monday June 26, 3:50 am Eastern Time
DENVER, Colo., June 26 (Reuters) - UnitedGlobalCom Inc., which offers high-speed communications services in Europe, said early Monday that it will acquire certain assets from
Liberty Media Corp. and in return make AT&T's (NYSE:T - news) cable programming company its largest shareholder.
Under the deal, United (NasdaqNM:UCOMA - news) will buy certain of Liberty's (NYSE:LMGa - news) (NYSE:LMGb - news) international broadband distribution and programming assets in exchange for $200 million in cash and 75.3 million shares of United's Class B common stock. Those shares represent a 38 percent economic and a 72 percent voting interest in United, according to a joint release by the companies.
Liberty will be bound by voting and standstill agreements with United and certain of its controlling shareholders, and will have the right to appoint four out of 12 representatives to the United board.
United will buy from Liberty a 25 percent indirect, economic interest in Telewest Communications plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: TWT.L) (NasdaqNM:TWSTY - news), the second largest broadband communications provider in the United Kingdom. Liberty will transfer to United 99 percent of a limited liability company (LLC) which holds 724.3 million ordinary shares of Telewest. The remaining one percent of the LLC and sole management power over the LLC will be held by Liberty. United will obtain a right of first refusal over the transfer of these interests.
United will contribute the indirect interest in Telewest to its subsidiary United Pan-Europe Communications (NasdaqNM:UPCOY - news) in exchange for 128.2 million UPC shares, which will increase UnitedGlobalCom's ownership in UPC to about 61 percent.
In addition, United will acquire Liberty's Latin American broadband interests. United will also buy certain other broadband interests held by Liberty, including a 15 percent stake in Crown Media Holdings Inc. (NasdaqNM:CRWN - news), distributor of Odyssey and the Hallmark Channel, as well as 20 percent of Premium Movie Partnership, a movie channel joint venture in Australia.
The companies expect the deal to close early in the fourth quarter. |
