It has emerged that outgoing Virgin Media CEO Steve Burch has had no involvement in the sale of the cablenet for over two and a half months. The information came to light in documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to the filing Burch, who this week left the company for what was described as “family and personal reasons”, had not undertaken any negotiations on the sale since June 7.
It is reported that representatives of the private equity companies had expressed surprise that Burch, who had been in post for just 19 months, was absent from recent talks. Instead they were conducted by the US-based chairman Jim Mooney and the shareholder Bill Huff.
The terms of Burch’s departure “exiles” him to the United States, the SEC document stating, “Burch hereby acknowledges and agrees that he shall relocate to the United States on or before December 31, 2007.”
The agreement also binds him from making any comments that might be seen as criticism of his former employer. His is expected to receive a payoff of around $7.5m (€5.53m).