Ziggo rejects ‘inadequate’ Liberty offer

Dutch cable operator Ziggo has turned down a takeover offer from Liberty Global, it said yesterday. 

In a statement, Ziggo confirmed it had received a “preliminary proposal regarding a potential offer” from Liberty, but said that this offer was “considered inadequate.”

Ziggo, which put out the statement in response to recent market speculation, said that there “is no certainty that Ziggo will receive any revised offer.”

Last month Ziggo launched Ziggo Mobile, its new mobile telephony and data service, and in April introduced its WiFi spot offering, using the partitioned cable modem WiFi clouds of its subscriber base.

Speaking at the CTAM Europe EuroSummit in September, Peter Dorr, Liberty Global’s managing director, strategic marketing, sales and customer care, said that it could potentially Liberty expanding its Horizon TV offering using ‘Horizon WiFi’ spots based on the model already developed by Ziggo.

“Why not join together and create a wireless network for the whole of the Netherlands?” said Dorr at the time. He added that the cable industry could also join together to create a universal cable WiFi network across Europe with a single login, enabling free WiFi across international boundaries for cable subscribers.

The Ziggo approach is the latest takeover attempt by Liberty Global, which agreed to buy the UK’s Virgin Media earlier this year for €17.2 billion.