Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Micheal Martin has cleared the way for international giant Liberty to buy cable TV operator NTL Ireland. Liberty already owns Chorus.
The deal means Liberty can now invest up to €400m on upgrading its services. It plans to offer television, telephone and broadband over the same pipe which currently carries TV signals into homes.
Meanwhile, NTL Ireland's former parent company NTL has made a bid approach to Britain's Virgin Mobile worth £817m. NTL says it has the support of the mobile phone group's majority shareholder Virgin Group.
Virgin confirmed it had received a takeover approach, saying it was considering its response and was mindful of its duty to maximise value for all of its shareholders.
A deal to buy Virgin Mobile would give NTL the ability to add mobile services to its existing line-up of TV, internet and telephone services, giving it a potential advantage over rivals such as BT Group and satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
