Sir Richard Branson is set to top up his bank account with another $316 million (£201.7 million) following the agreed takeover of Virgin Media by John Malone’s Liberty Global for $16 billion.
The bearded billionaire, who has an estimated £3.4 billion fortune, owns 6.6 million shares in Virgin Media as the inheritance to the 2006 deal which saw him inject his Virgin Mobile into cable company NTL Telewest.
Liberty is offering a mixture of cash and shares valuing each Virgin Media share at $47.87 which makes Branson’s stake worth $316 million. The agreed bid is at a 24% premium to Virgin Media’s closing price on Monday night before the deal became public.
Neil Berkett, chief executive of Virgin Media, said he would be leaving once the deal was completed because: “I’m not a very good number two.”
Berkett will also receive a huge windfall if not quite on the Branson scale. He has headed the company since 2008 and could receive up to $85 million when the deal goes through under share and option schemes.
Berkett said under its new ownership Virgin Media would become a “disruptive challenger” to rivals like Sky and BT.
But Mike Fries, Liberty chief executive, played down suggestions that Malone intended to take on his media rival, Rupert Murdoch.
He said he was not planning to bid for premium sports rights against Sky and was happy to keep the current relationship offering premium Sky channels on the Virgin network.
Fries also said he did not expect to cut any jobs among Virgin’s engineers and call-centre staff in the UK. The group employs 14,000 people.
Liberty has pay-TV operations around the world and is the largest cable operator in most of its 11 European markets.
