US company Liberty Global plans to unify its German cable operations under the common brand identity Unitymedia early next year, in a move aimed at strengthening its competitive position. On 1 July 2012 Liberty Global completed the merger of Unitymedia, which operates cable networks in the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, and Baden-Wurttemberg-based Kabel BW, notes TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database. The two separate brands have so far remained in force across the individual network footprints, but from spring 2015 the Kabel BW moniker will be discontinued in Baden-Wurttemberg, with cable services in the federal state renamed under the Unitymedia brand.
Liberty purchased Unitymedia in January 2010 for an enterprise value of EUR3.5 billion (USD4.4 billion), before snapping up Kabel BW from Swedish private equity firm EQT in March 2011 for EUR3.16 billion. The combined entity passes around 12.7 million households and has a customer base of roughly 7.1 million as at 30 September 2014.