Liberty quiet on Chellomedia sale report

Liberty Global has declined to comment on a report in the Wall Street Journal that it has put its Chellomedia content business up for sale.

According to the Journal, Liberty Global has put Chellomedia up for a sale in a move that could potentially lead to a deal valued at between US$800 million and US$1 billion.

The report, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said that the cable giant hired advisers about a month ago and is in talks with several possible buyers. According to one of the sources cited, the talks could lead to a full or partial sale, a joint venture or no sale at all.

If a deal is struck, it is likely to come by this autumn, the paper said.

It is not yet clear why Liberty Global is mulling a sale at this time.

However, at the Cable Congress in London in March, Liberty Global chief executive Mike Fries said that large content investments were not part of the company’s forward-looking plans, and that Chellomedia’s “strategic benefits to us are somewhat limited”.

Speaking at the Congress, Fries said that, while Chellomedia was a good business, it was “not part of our strategic plan to start investing massive amounts of capital in content providers”.