British phone and cable provider NTL is in talks to take over Virgin Mobile and create a quadruple play company that would sell cable, voice, wireless and Internet services under the Virgin brand. Analysts say the company could fetch about $1.4 billion. If the deal goes through, Richard Branson will sell his 71 percent stake in Virgin Mobile to NTL. Branson, who holds his Virgin Mobile stake though Virgin Group, will then buy 14 percent of the combined company. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but insiders say they will be released later this week. Virgin Mobile claims 4 million wireless subscribers in the UK. Virgin Mobile USA would not be affected by the deal. Analysts expect the combined company to claim 9 million customers.
For more on the NTL, Virgin Mobile deal:
- take a look at this article from The New York Times