A weak share price, a massive debt-fuelled acquisition, and an impending switch to an unproven chief executive.

Vodafone is nearing a transformational deal to buy continental European assets from cable giant John Malone’s Liberty Global and could announce an agreement next week, according to sources.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox and Netherlands-based Ziggo Sport — owned by John Malone’s Liberty Global and Vodafone — said they had been targeted in a European Commission investigation into a possible cartel in sports broadcasting rights.

David McRedmond, who was the commercial director at Eir almost 15 years ago when the telecoms firm was called Eircom, is to return to the company as its non-executive chairman.

Virgin Media, the internet and TV provider, has claimed too much “red-tape” is holding up the roll out of rural broadband.

When Carolyn McCall left the media world for the airline industry seven years ago, newspaper publishers were under siege from a shift online that sucked away advertising revenue. Now she’s coming back to run ITV, just as the battleground has moved to television.

Liberty Global lowered its growth target for Europe this year as billionaire John Malone’s cable carrier reported a weaker-than-expected start in the UK.

ITV chief executive Adam Crozier is stepping down after seven years, as the UK broadcaster shakes up its executive ranks amid a Brexit-derived advertising slowdown.

In a rapidly changing TV landscape, RTÉ’s only realistic options are to reduce its costs as a TV platform and increase the commercial income it earns as a producer, writes Roddy Flynn

Kenny accused of having ‘no discernible plan, vision or direction’.

US billionaire John Malone has secured planning permission for a major extension to his Hilton hotel at Charlemont Place at Grand Canal in Dublin after An Bord Pleanála gave the go-ahead for a seven-storey, 97-bedroom extension.

Exclusive rights to broadcasting the 2015 Rugby World Cup last year failed to turn around the fortunes of TV3 as pre-tax losses more than doubled to €16.95 million.

John Malone has applied for a seven-storey, 97-bedroom extension to the Hilton Hotel on Grand Canal.

US billionaire John Malone last year booked a €9.34m gain on the value of his new five-star InterContinental hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

Vodafone Group could benefit from a merger with Liberty Global, according to a report in Barron’s, which added the British telecommunications company’s shares could also be poised for a 33% rise.

Virgin Media Ireland increased revenue by 2% to €100m in the three months to the end of June despite declining customer numbers. The company said revenue edged higher in the second quarter of the year as more customers availed of its “high value offerings”.

US billionaire John Malone’s Virgin Media — which owns TV3 and the cable operator — has confirmed plans to acquire UTV Ireland from ITV, in a €10m deal which will raise fears for jobs at both broadcasters.

US billionaire John Malone’s Virgin Media — which owns TV3 and the UPC cable operator — is reportedly poised to buy out rival broadcaster UTV Ireland, sparking fears for jobs at the fledgeling broadcaster.

Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges often says Europe needs fewer, bigger telecommunications carriers that can invest in faster networks and better compete with Google and Facebook. Deutsche Telekom has a 12% stake in BT.

Cable & Wireless yesterday said a deal with billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Global would help both companies add scale in a high-growth, low-penetration region for smartphones and broadband connections.

After spending the past decade consolidating the European cable industry, US billionaire John Malone is to do the same in Latin America.

Fledgling broadcaster UTV Ireland’s news staff in the Dublin Docklands were assured yesterday that their jobs were safe after Britain’s ITV confirmed it will buy all of the UTV Media Group’s television operations, but the £100m (€135.9m) deal still faces regulatory hurdles.

With a $120bn merger with Liberty Global off the table, Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao needs his strategy of higher network investments and acquisitions of European cable companies to start paying off, quickly.

Talks between Vodafone and Liberty Global about exchanging assets to better compete in Europe’s converging mobile, broadband, and TV markets collapsed yesterday because they could not agree on the value of their businesses.

Communications group UPC Ireland is to formally rebrand as Virgin Media, across all of its offerings, in the coming months.

The owner of UPC in Ireland, Liberty Global, has reported a decline in second-quarter revenue as its Dutch unit Ziggo lost customers, highlighting the difficulties for billionaire John Malone’s European cable company in its hunt for growth.

TV3 could bid against RTÉ for Irish TV rights to the Olympic Games if, as expected, free-to-air rights are sub-licensed to an Irish broadcaster.

European cable operator Liberty Global said yesterday it had raised its stake in ITV to 9.9% through a hedging deal — but still had no intention of taking over Britain’s biggest free-to-air commercial TV firm.

Global communications giant Liberty Global, owner of television cable company UPC Ireland, has struck a deal to buy broadcaster TV3 for €87m, a development that will stiffen competition for RTÉ and the troubled fledgling station UTV Ireland.

Fledgling station UTV Ireland has increased its estimates for losses for a third time in less than a year, and now predicts it will post losses of £11.5m (€16.2m) in 2015 — its maiden year of operation.

TV3 may be be valued at well over €100m if US cable giant Liberty Global decides to follow through and acquire the Irish television channel, according to senior sources.

Vodafone said yesterday it was in talks with Europe’s largest cable operator Liberty Global about an exchange of assets but was not discussing a full-blown merger.

Vodafone Group is weighing an initial public offering for its Indian business, the wireless carrier’s biggest unit by customers, said a person familiar with the matter.

With the property sector starting to boom again and more jobs on-stream, wages are rising and bankers are popping champagne. Kyran FitzGerald is experiencing a bout of deja vu.

UPC Ireland plans to formally become a mobile communications provider by late 2015.

Earnings at the main Irish arm of cable TV provider UPC last year increased by 8.5% to €129m in spite of a slight drop in customer numbers.

Fans’ leaders will oppose any attempt to screen live Premier League matches on Saturday afternoons after it was revealed cable giant Virgin Media has lodged a formal complaint with the broadcast regulator Ofcom about television rights sales.

UPC Ireland lost almost 7,000 customers in the nine months to the end of March but saw the total number of subscriptions increase in the same period.

IRISH hotel operating group Choice Hotels have taken over management of the Blarney Golf Resort, which was snapped up this year by Northern Ireland-based investor Tommy O’Gorman for c€2.5m, after seeing a c€40 investment in its initial resort and hotel development.

The Irish-owned Lalco Hotel Group has made its third property acquisition in conjunction with US billionaire businessman, John Malone, via the purchase of Dublin’s five-star Westin Hotel.

Lalco Hotel Group and John Malone of Liberty Global have signed an agreement to acquire the five-star Westin Hotel in Dublin.