German cable network operator Unitymedia KabelBW, which is owned by UK-based Liberty Global, has announced that it will discontinue the KabelBW brand across its footprint from next month. 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 April the Kabel BW moniker will be dropped in Baden-Wurttemberg, with cable services in the federal state renamed under the common Unitymedia identity.
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 had a customer base of roughly 7.1 million at the end of 2014.