Gene Musselman will take the helm as acting MD of Germany’s Unitymedia, alongside his jobs as president and COO of UPC Broadband, the European subsidiary of Liberty Global. Parm Sandhu, current CEO of Unitymedia, has decided to leave the company to pursue other career opportunities.
The announcement comes after Liberty Global has completed its purchase of Unity Media GmbH , the second largest German cable operator, from Unity Media SCA. The acquisition has a total value of €3.5 billion. (See Broadband TV News passim)
Mike Fries, president and CEO of Liberty Global, said in a statement: “We are excited about the addition of Unitymedia to our European operations. Parm Sandhu and the entire management team at Unity have built a world class company which will add significant scale and growth opportunities to our European footprint.”
The Unitymedia cable network passes approximately 8.8 million households and covers ten of the twenty largest cities in Germany, including Cologne, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. As of September 30, 2009 Unitymedia had some 6.4 million RGUs, of which 4.5 million were basic cable customers and 1.9 million subscribers to new services (digital television, broadband internet retail, business customers with internet access and multimedia telephony).