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Liberty targets TWC through Sirius

Liberty Global, the US cable company controlled by media mogul John Malone, may be targeting Time Warner Cable (TWC) via an offer to take full control of satellite-radio carrier Sirius XM.

Liberty, which already owns a large stake in Sirius, is looking to buy out the latter firm’s minority shareholders in a deal that would give the company more cash flow to drive its cable consolidations, according to CEO Greg Maffei.

“Sirius XM will generate more cash for Liberty,” Maffei said in a statement. “It’s still below its target leverage rate, which we might increase. That could be put toward financing a Time Warner Cable deal.”

The news comes as Reuters reports that an offer from Liberty valuing TWC at below US$135 per share could come early this year. If successful, that deal would be part of a series of acquisitions of assets by Malone’s company.

Last December, Liberty Global made another approach to buy cable TV provider Ziggo, after its previous bid was labelled “inadequate” by the Dutch company.

Liberty also completed its acquisition of UK cable firm Virgin Media last year in a deal valued at £15bn (US$23.3bn).

However, the company lost out in its bid for Germany’s largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland to Vodafone, which paid €7.7bn for the company.

Rumours are also circulating that Liberty is in talks to acquire Intel Media’s proposed over-the-top TV service OnCue after the chip-maker canned the project.

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