Vodafone offers $114 per share for Kabel Deutschland

Vodafone has made an official bid of $114 per share for Kabel Deutschland. The negotiations have been ongoing for some time now, and were almost brought to a close as Liberty Global, who bought Virgin Media in a $23.4 billion deal earlier this year, threatened to hijack the deal.

While the bid has been accepted by the board of Kabel Deutschland it is still down to the individual shareholders as to whether or not they accept the bid which values the business and a lofty $10 billion. Vodafone, who are one of the world’s largest wireless companies, have shown a keen interest in the German TV organisation primarily due to the access and position it would give them within the European market.

The offer that Liberty Global made to the Kabel Deutschland board is thought to have been in the region of $111 per share, some $262 million lower than the Vodafone offer. With the board now accepting the offer from Vodafone, they are expected to go away and recommend that shareholders accept the bid on the grounds that it “represents good value”.

The Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Calao released a statement early this morning saying “German consumer and business demand for fast broadband and data services continues to grow substantially as customers increasingly access TV, fixed and mobile broadband services from mobile devices in the home and workplace and on the move”.

Obviously at this early stage there will be no confirmation as to whether shareholders are likely to accept the bid, however it does put Vodafone firmly in the driving seat to acquire a much sought after company, and a foothold in the European television and Internet services market.