Sale of Cable & Wireless

[Bonnie]

From this morning's Newsroom Panama:

Cable and Wireless sold l for $7.4 billion

Posted on May 16, 2016 in Latin America, Panama

Post Views: 195

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CABLE AND WIRELESS Communications   changed  hands on Monday May 15 with the completion of the $7.4 billion  sale to Liberty Global

The deal  was approved in November 2015  by the C&W Board of Directors.

Liberty Global is a cable television company with almost 27 million subscribers and annual revenues of approximately $18 billion. Its owner is American John Malone.

C&W operates in 20 countries, with 10 million customers and $3.5 billion in annual revenues. Its operations in Panama are co-owned with the government.

[Keith Woolford]

This is not good news for consumers, imo.

Liberty Global is the international arm of Liberty Media and one of the largest suppliers of broadband internet service in the world.

John Malone's business actions have earned him nicknames such as Darth Vader and Mad Max. His communications empire stretches far and wide. He is also America's single biggest landholder, apparently personally possessing a good portion of Maine. Liberty Capital owns the Atlanta Braves.

Liberty Media was behind familiar names like DirecTV, Game Show Network, Court TV, Starz Media, etc.

Through the now completed acquisition of Cable and Wireless Communications, Liberty Global has become the owner of the largest pay-TV and broadband provider in the Caribbean, FLOW as well as BTC (Bahamas Telephone Company) and Cable and Wireless Panama, as well as a key player in mobile (competing against wireless heavyweight, Digicel in all most FLOW territories) and owner of offshore undersea fiber links to and from the region as well.

In addition, the company also owns CWC's operations in the Seychelles named Cable and Wireless Seychelles, providing fixed broadband and voice, pay-TV and mobile voice and broadband to the islands of Seychelles.

The company also owns C&W Business and C&W Networks, which serve business and corporate customers in the Caribbean and Latin America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Global

Edited May 17, 2016 by Keith Woolford

[JudyS]

Why is it bad news?  The new owner might provide better and expanded service.

[Roger B]

We all hope that the service improve....

 

[Bonnie]

My Mas Movil phone service has been great overall. In the last two days, however, we've experienced two outages. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the change in ownership. Maybe they're already making changes?

[JaneRitz]

I have Mas Movil and for the last year or so have re-charged online at services that top up minutes for carriers worldwide.  When I just went to two of those sites, they no longer show Mas Movil as a provider in Panama.  Digicel has apparently 'replaced' them.  I tried C&W directly, where I used to buy minutes online, but for whatever reason my order wouldn't go through.  Anybody use Digicel?  Maybe it's time to switch.  And where do I go to get their sim card?