3 July 2007
Virgin Media remains tight-lipped over rumours of a 5.5 billion private takeover deal.
The company, which became the first in the UK to offer consumers a bundled deal of internet, satellite television, mobile and a fixed line phone service, is reportedly being looked at by private equity firm Carlyle.
The revelation comes after a series of high-profile problems in recent months, most notably with BSkyB over the amount they pay each other to provide their channels - which resulted in the latter pulling basic channels from the Virgin's cable service.
According to reports the company continues to pump money into salvaging its dwindling subscriber numbers through advertising campaigns following the loss of these channels.
Responding to the rumours, a Virgin Media spokeswoman said the firm "did not comment on speculation".
According to Virgin's last results, the company now has three million television users, 3.4 million broadband customers, 4.1 million fixed-line telephone customers and 4.5 million subscribers to its mobile phone service.
The communications firm was formed after a merger between NTL Telewest and Virgin Mobile earlier this year.