Virgin Media Goes Up For Sale?

It has been reported that business mogul Sir Richard Branson is to sell the Virgin Media business to private equity firm Carlyle Group for something around £5.5 Billion. There are other companies interested in Virgin media, including ntl:Telewest.

Talks are preliminary at the moment and may not lead to a bid but it won’t be long before someone snaps the company up. Virgin Media was formed by a merger this year between Virgin Mobile and NTL and reported it’s seventh consecutive quarterly loss in May.

Virgin Media lost many customers this year when it stopped airing basic Sky channels and dropping firm favourites such as The Simpsons, 24 and Lost. This was because of a battle over fees with Sky during negotiations to renew a distribution agreement.

Sky accounts for around 70% of the country’s pay TV subscribers but with Virgin Media’s introduction the relationship between the two have become more and more frayed in recent months.

Whatever happens to Virgin Media and whichever company buys it, Sir Richard Branson is going to be a seriously wealthy man… oh wait, he already is!