Herbert Smith and Freshfields advise as Liberty Global buys stake in ITV
Herbert Smith Freehills and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have advised on US cable giant Liberty Global's £481m purchase of a stake in ITV.
July 20, 2014 at 07:08 PM
2 minute read
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have advised on US cable giant Liberty Global's £481m purchase of a stake in ITV.
Owned by billionaire media executive John Malone, Liberty purchased the 6.4% share in the British broadcaster from BSkyB, but says it has no plans to buy ITV outright. Liberty did, however, reserve the right to make a takeover offer within the next six months.
HSF global head of M&A Stephen Wilkinson acted for BSkyB. Wilkinson has acted for BSkyB before in 2010 on a £7.8 billion offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for the 61% share in the company it did not already own.
The bid was withdrawn the following year however, amidst allegations of phone hacking at News Corporation's UK newspapers, and was later investigated by media regulator Ofcom.
Freshfields corporate partner Julian Long (pictured), who was recently appointed managing partner of the firm's London office, acted for Liberty Global, alongside corporate partner David Sonter, also in London.
Liberty has made a string of acquisitions in recent years, and is an established client for Freshfields. Earlier this year, Sonter advised the company on its £550m joint purchase of British television producer All3Media with Discovery Communications.
In 2011, Freshfields also acted alongside Ropes & Gray on Liberty's $4.5bn (£2.9bn) acquisition of German cable TV operator Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg (KBW).
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