Large combined debt
Vodafone has already admitted it has been talking to Liberty Global, but those talks are still in their infancy and a merger is still quite a way off. If the deal goes through, the new company would be worth 130 billion dollars (116 billion euro), according to press agency Bloomberg.
Vodafone still has its doubts about a deal. One of the issues is the combined debt both companies have and it also fears how investors may react. The new company may also have to deal with the British antitrust authority, which may scupper the deal.
A merger became a possibility after it became apparent that its competitor BT Group has opened talks with Telefonica SA about a possible O2 acquisition, while it is also in talks with Orange and Deutsche Telekom about EE.
Liberty Global is known in Belgium because of Telenet, but has Virgin Media in the United Kingdom. Vodafone on the other hand bought Kabel Deutschland Holding last year, for 7.7 billion euro, and also acquired Grupo Corporativo Ono. Back then, it was also considering a deal with Liberty Global.
