NTL and Virgin Mobile deal goes through

4 July 2006 10:45 GMT / By Amber Maitland

NTL's acquisition of Virgin Mobile has now received all necessary court approvals to go through.

The deal includes a licensing arrangement with Virgin Enterprises to use the Virgin brand for NTL's portfolio of consumer services, suggesting that the NTL image may get a revamp.

The announcement says that the deal will give consumers a chance to buy a bundle or "quadruple play" of TV, internet, fixed and mobile telephone services from one provider.

At the moment NTL and Virgin Mobile will continue to act as separate entities, with a single marketing plan emerging in early 2007, "if not sooner".

Sir Richard Branson said of the deal, "Today, we've created a unique organization – a new, soon-to-be-branded Virgin company – which will offer the very finest in 'quadruple' – the best-value, most-exciting TV, broadband, mobile and phone services in Britain".

NTL's bid for Virgin Mobile was £962.4million last April, after a previous offer of £871m was rejected.

Full tags

Biz, Mergers, NTL, Virgin Mobile, Email, iPod, Zune