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Virgin Media Inc. (formerly known as '''NTL:Telewest''', comprising a merger of '''NTL Incorporated''' with '''Telewest Global, Inc.'''), a company based mainly in the United Kingdom , became in 2006 the first " Quadruple-play " media-company in the UK, bringing together a so-called "quad play" service consisting of Television , Internet , Mobile Phone and fixed-line Telephone services. This is to compete with the same services (with the exception of mobile phones) that Sky offer. While the company has its headquarters in New York City , its activities focus heavily on the United Kingdom, with operational headquarters in Hook, North Hampshire . On July 1 2007 it emerged that the Private Equity investment firm The Carlyle Group had initiated discussions to acquire Virgin Media Inc. Compare 1 2 HISTORY Telewest (1984-2006) See Also: Telewest (former) Telewest originated in Croydon in 1984 under the name "Croydon Cable". In 1988 United Cable of Denver, US, acquired Croydon Cable. Franchises extended the company scope in Edinburgh and the south west and south-east of England . In 1989 United Cable merged with United Artists Cable International. In 1991 United Artists merged with their largest shareholder TCI ( Now Liberty Media ), to form the largest cable-operator in the US. TCI and US West announced a joint venture, and in 1992 the joint venture company became Telewest Communications. In 1995 Telewest merged with SBC Communications, adding franchises in the Midlands and North West serving 1.3 million homes. In 1998 Telewest announced a merger with General Cable, and acquired an outstanding interest in Birmingham Cable , adding a further 1.7 million franchise homes in Yorkshire, west London and Birmingham. Telewest purchased the remaining 50% stake in Cable London from NTL in 1999, adding 0.4 million franchise homes in north London. In April 2000 Telewest merged with Flextech , and in November extended its cable network with the acquisition of Eurobell , taking the total number of homes passed to 4.9 million. The company later became known as "Telewest Broadband" in a re-brand during 2001. 3 In subsequent years Telewest experienced many financial problems due to the huge debts it incurred as a result of constructing its cable-network and of acquiring other cable-companies and assets. In 2004 Telewest re-structured itself by swapping its Unsecured Debt for 98.5% of its shares. The London FTSE then de-listed the consolidated shares. Major Telewest shareholders included Huff and Liberty Media (run by cable tycoon John Malone ). Afterwards the company emerged from financial restructuring and completed a merger with NTL in 2006. Telewest also provided the broadband service 'Blueyonder', using the same cable-system as its television-service. NTL (1993-2006) Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal , the founders of the cellular network company Cellular Communications, Inc. (sold to Airtouch in 1996), established ''International CableTel'' in 1993. They founded CableTel in order to take advantage of the Deregulation of the UK cable market. Initially, Cabletel acquired local cable-franchises covering Guildford , Northern Ireland and parts of Central Scotland and South Wales . In 1996 CableTel acquired National Transcommunications Limited (NTL), the Privatised UK Independent Broadcasting Authority transmission-network. In 1998 CableTel adopted "NTL" as its new name. The company spent heavily on expanding its network and on acquisitions — including the consumer cable division of Cable And Wireless , bought for $10bn, and partly paid for with a $5.5bn investment from France Telecom . NTL also began to expand outside the UK in 2000, buying into markets on continental Europe and in Ireland . A collapse of the following shortly after. Devalued and struggling with debts of around $18bn, NTL had to seek Chapter-11 bankruptcy-protection in May 2002 in order to organise a refinancing deal. The company did not emerge from protection until January 2003, having converted around $11 billion of debt into shares. Technically, this amounted to the largest Debt Default in US corporate history. The company reduced its debt to $6.4bn. A re-organisation split NTL itself into NTL Inc. (covering the UK and Irish markets) and NTL Europe Inc. (for the French , Swiss and German parts of the corporation). New executives replaced the NTL president, CEO and co-founder Barclay Knapp, as well as Stephen Carter, the MD and COO . After exiting from Chapter-11 protection, NTL produced an operating profit. In 2004 it announced plans to split its broadcasting division off from the main company. In December 2004 NTL sold its broadcast-unit to a consortium led by Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group (MCG) for £1.27 billion. (Macquarie renamed the division '' Arqiva '' in May 2005.) This sale allowed NTL to focus on its "core businesses" of providing communications packages and cable-services. In autumn 2004 NTL purchased the remaining shares of the Internet Service Provider (ISP) Virgin.net , originally a joint venture between NTL and Sir Richard Branson 's Virgin Group . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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