| NTL recasts top management, brings in Comcast veteran to oversee Telewest merger |
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LONDON: Cable company NTL Inc., in the midst of a merger with smaller rival Telewest Global Inc., and with a plan to acquire mobile phone operator Virgin Mobile, has replaced its Chief Executive Simon Duffy with Stephen Burch, a senior executive from Comcast Corporation.
Burch, president of Comcast's Atlantic division, will be CEO of NTL from 16 January, while Duffy will assume the position of executive vice chairman.
The restructuring comes at a time when the company is planning to take on satellite operator BSkyB and telecoms major BT Group through consolidation.
Analysts say Burch, a cable industry veteran in the U.S., had helped to integrate AT&T Broadband after Comcast purchased it. He is expected to provide key insights for NTL in managing the acquisitions, mostly the Telewest merger.
Even as the Telewest merger is all set to take place, NTL made an 817 million-pound offer to buy Virgin Mobile, 72 per cent owned by entrepreneur Richard Branson. While Branson has backed the deal, the Virgin Mobile board has rejected it saying the price quoted is insufficient. However, NTL is hopeful that the deal will go through so that it can create a TV-Internet-fixed-line-mobile operator under the Virgin brand.
NTL chairman James Mooney said Duffy will continue to be handling the Virgin Mobile deal.
Meanwhile, the company said the 3.4 billion-pound merger with Telewest will now be restructured as a reverse takeover in order to help the combined company to continue with the contract with the BBC, a joint venture partner in the UKTV channels. BBC has a partnership with the content division of Telewest, and the control clause in the deal says BBC can seek a new deal if Telewest is sold. There will be no change in the payment terms of the deal.
NTL shareholders welcomed Burch's appointment with NTL shares, quoted in the Nasdaq rising by 2.3 per cent to $67.69 a share.
Posted
on : Sat, 17 Dec 2005 20:05 GMT | General News
By : Salim Patel
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