Virgin Media vowed to become a "disruptive challenger" in the pay-TV market after agreeing a £10 billion takeover by US cable giant Liberty Global.
The deal marks a breakthrough into the UK market for Colorado-based billionaire investor John Malone, whose Liberty empire will span 14 countries and have 25 million customers after taking on Britain's second biggest pay-TV company.
It will make him a direct rival of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the company which owns 39% of pay-TV market leader BSkyB and was once 18% owned by Mr Malone.
Virgin Media, which was created out of the mergers of NTL, Telewest and Virgin Mobile, employs 14,000 people in the UK, including at call centres in Glasgow. No customer-facing jobs are expected to go.
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