Independent television in Great Britain may soon be in the hands of U.S. citizen John Malone, former cable magnate and head of the giant Liberty Global cable and entertainment conglomerate that has swept across western Europe through a series of mergers and buyouts.
Deregulation has allowed the prospect of Britain’s biggest independent network, dwarfed only by the BBC, to soon be owned lock, stock, and barrel by Americans.
Malone may face other bidders, however, notably Comcast-NBCUniversal, which has not yet publicly revealed whether it is interested or not.
Another potential benefit of the transaction would be to allow its American buyer to avoid U.S. taxes by relocating their corporate headquarters to Great Britain in a controversial practice known as tax-inversion.
