A Big Takeover in Media Market: Virgin Media Sold to Liberty Global for £15bn

Usain Bolt will have a new boss to impersonate now. US billionaire John Malone's cable group, Liberty Global, has agreed to buy the UK's Virgin Media in a cash and stock deal worth $23.3bn (£15bn). The takeover will create the world's largest broadband company (with 25 million customers in 14 countries) and a stronger competitor for BSkyB in the UK which is the clear market leader with over 10 million household subscribers.

Rory Cellan-Jones from the BBC reports on the background to and reasons for the takeover:

This interview on the FT channel also analyses the deal: