If LIberty Gobal’s bid to take over Dutch cable operator Ziggo ia successful, the UPC brand will disappear.
Ziggo is the largest of the two main cable operators in the Netherlands and will become the main brand after Liberty Global has merged UPC Nederlnd and Ziggo. The new company will also have its HQ in the current Ziggo offices in Utrecht. Currently, UPC is headquartered in Amsterdam.
Ziggo CEO René Obermann, who just joined the company on January 1, said during a press conference this morning that he will leave his new post directly after the merger. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year. Obermann comes from Deutsche Telekom and he succeeded Berbard Dijkhuizen.
The takeover will be subject to regulatory approval by the Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM) and a green light is not a foregone conclusion. For consumers there will be little effect, as the two cable operators serve different regions, but broadcasters might object against a single operator in the country. At the moment, KPN’s DTT and IPTV platforms and Canal Digitaal Satelliet DTH are the only national competitors.
