Telecom giant Virgin Media has abandoned plans to buy O2, cable and broadband operator TalkTalk, according to British media reports.
Virgin Media O2 – A joint venture between Liberty Global, owner of the Virgin media brand, and Telefonica, owner of O2. -, in July this year, bid £3bn for the rival.
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However, according to The Telegraph, interest in the deal has dropped due to concerns about access to UK credit markets and uncertainty over how the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) would view a union among competitors in the broadband sector.
In addition to Virgin Media O2, a potential sale of TalkTalk has drawn attention from other UK-based telcos such as Vodafone, BT and Sky. However, no proposal has been made till date.
Talktalk is expected to open talks with BT’s infrastructure arm Openreach with the aim of closing a deal to move its 4 million customers to a full fiber optic network after its deal with Virgin Media O2 fell through.
TalkTalk is currently under severe financial pressure. According to the British newspaper, the operator’s debts totaled 1.1 billion pounds.
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