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To: Rob S. who wrote (62133)	6/13/1999 10:28:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

UK cable giants plan 30 bln stg merger-paper LONDON, June 13 (Reuters) - Britain's top three cable companies -- Cable & Wireless Communications <CWZ.L>, Telewest <TWT.L> and NTL <NTLI.O> -- are discussing a 30 billion pound ($48 billion) merger, The Mail on Sunday newspaper said. The groups have also invited Deutsche Telekom <DTEG.F> and France Telecom <FTE.PA> to consider joining, it said. Quoting high-ranking industry officials, the paper said a merger would create a cable industry giant with the clout to challenge BT <BT.L> and BSkyB <BSY.L>, the pay-TV company, in Britain's telecoms and home entertainment markets. The companies involved want the French or the German telecoms group to inject about 5.0 billion pounds into the project. Along with CWC, the group would include U.S. software giant Microsoft <MSFT.O>, which already owns 29.9 percent of Telewest and could end up with close to 10 percent of the merged group, the Mail said. Another partner would be Liberal Media, also involved in Telewest, but run independently by the U.S. cable industry baron John Malone. The proposed merger was unlikely to face regulatory hurdles because BT and Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB would still offer fierce competition, the paper said. Several top investment banks have already been signed up as advisers to the discussions now under way between the three cable companies, the paper added. A five billion pound injection from European telecoms firms would eventually allow the partners to buy out the 52 percent of CWC owned by Cable & Wireless Plc <CW.L>, it said. CWC is Britain's biggest cable company. The second biggest is Telewest, which is locked in merger talks with CWC. NTL is Britain's third biggest cable company and is listed in the United States. Officials of the three companies could not be immediately reached for comment. Deutsche Telekom recently lost out in a major bid battle for Telecom Italia <TIT.MI>, which fell to Olivetti <OLIV.MI>. ($1=.6211 Pound) REUTERS Rtr 10:04 06-13-99