company traded as nasdaq lbtya nasdaq lbtyb nasdaq lbtyk nasdaq 100 components lbtya and lbtyk lilac group nasdaq lila and nasdaq lilak industry telecommunications media founded 2005 in douglas county colorado united states headquarters london denver amsterdam key people john c. malone chairman michael fries president and ceo balan nair chief technology officer charlie bracken chief financial officer products broadband internet cable television telephony mobile direct broadcast satellite revenue us 18.3 billion 2015 1 operating income us 2.3 billion 2015 1 total assets us 67.867 billion 2015 2 total equity us 10.174 billion 2015 2 number of employees 47 000 2016 3 website www.libertyglobal.com liberty global plc is an international telecommunications and television company . it was formed in 2005 by the merger of the international arm of liberty media and ugc unitedglobalcom . 4 liberty global is the largest broadband internet service provider outside the us . 3 liberty global had an annual revenue of 18.3 billion in 2015 with operations in 30 countries and 47 000 employees by 2016 . its cable services pass 55.8 million homes with 28.6 million customers or 59 million rgus video internet and voice subscribers . 1 3 5 contents 1 history 2 horizon tv 3 operations 4 markets 4.1 americas 4.2 europe 5 references 6 external links history edit liberty global inc. was founded in 2005 when liberty media international inc. lmi and unitedglobalcom inc. ugc merged . lmi and ugc became subsidiaries of liberty global . the new entity had operations in 18 countries and networks over approximately 23 million homes making it one of the largest broadband services companies in the world . 6 7 liberty acquired german company unitymedia in november 2009 for 5.2 billion . unitymedia was liberty s first german acquisition and the largest private equity exit in europe in 2009 . 8 in 2010 liberty sold its stake in jupiter telecommunications a japanese telecommunications services provider as liberty shifted its resources back toward europe . 9 in january 2013 liberty global raised its stake in belgium based telenet from 50.2 % to 58 % . 10 in june 2013 liberty global acquired british cable group virgin media for 24 billion in cash and stock . 11 12 the agreement expanded liberty into europe s largest cable market . the acquisition was ranked as one of the 10 largest cable deals of all time . 13 liberty agreed on 28 october to sell chellomedia for 1.035 billion except for its benelux unit to amc networks . 10 it was reported that this acquisition would make liberty global the largest broadband company in the world . 4 liberty global announced it would be acquiring dutch cable company ziggo for 10 billion in january 2014 . the acquisition was completed in november 2014 when the services of upc nederland began to be merged into the new business . 14 liberty global and discovery communications became joint owners of all3media in may 2014 in a 500 million joint deal . 15 16 17 in july 2014 liberty global acquired a 6.4 % stake in itv plc valued at 481 million . 18 liberty s stake in the company increased to 9.9 % in july 2015 . 19 20 in june 2015 vodafone confirmed talks with liberty global focused on potential partnerships but denied that a full merger was in the works . 21 22 23 liberty global invested in guavus a data analytics company in september 2015 . 24 in november 2015 liberty global announced its acquisition of cable & wireless communications . the 5.3 billion deal would expand liberty global into the caribbean . 25 26 27 the acquisition was completed in may 2016 . 3 in 2015 liberty established the stock liberty latin american & caribbean lilac focusing on panama and the caribbean with assets in chile and puerto rico . 28 29 liberty global paid approximately 195 million for a 3.4 % stake in lions gate entertainment group in november 2015 . liberty ceo mike fries joined the lion s gate board of directors as part of the acquisition . 30 31 32 in february 2016 it was announced that vodafone and liberty global would merge dutch operations . liberty s dutch subsidiary ziggo would work with vodafone s mobile network . 33 34 vodafone paid liberty 1 billion as part of the joint venture valued at 3.5 billion . 35 36 the deal was approved by the european commission in august 2016 . 37 liberty invested 7.5 million in global broadband cable network technetix in july 2016 . 38 39 horizon tv edit horizon tv is liberty global s flagship platform with more than 10 million first generation horizon tv devices sold . liberty global launched horizon tv a box to stream to tvs in 2012 . 40 h2 an upgraded version of the horizon box was launched in 2013 . the new system included an upgraded remote control with a qwerty keyboard . a secondary box connects wirelessly to the main device allowing tv dvr and vod streaming to multiple rooms in a subscriber s house . 41 liberty partnered with activevideo in 2013 to include activevideo s cloudtv on the horizon boxes . 42 twitter was integrated into horizon s mobile app library in 2016 . the addition allowed live tweets to be overlaid onto the screen of a program being broadcast . 43 44 also in 2016 horizon tv was launched in austria making it available in all three german speaking countries that liberty global operates in . 45 operations edit liberty global operates through the following subsidiaries all3media 50 % ownership with discovery communications itv plc united kingdom 9.9 % shareholding lionsgate 6.75 % ownership with lions gate entertainment corporation and discovery communications telenet belgium 58 % ownership base upc broadband upc austria upc czech republic upc magyarorsz g hungary upc polska poland upc romania upc slovakia upc switzerland e fon 49 % ownership 46 upc dth upc direct hungary freesat czech republic and slovakia focus sat romania unitymedia germany virgin media virgin mobile uk united kingdom virgin media ireland republic of ireland tv3 group virgin mobile ziggo vodafone netherlands 50 % joint venture with vodafone ziggo sport ziggo sport totaal hbo netherlands 50 % ownership with time warner markets edit americas edit liberty global s operations in the americas consists of liberty puerto rico a provider of pay tv internet and telephone services in puerto rico and vtr a chilean cable provider of television telephone mobile and internet services . through the acquisition of cable and wireless communications liberty global has become the owner of the largest pay tv and broadband provider in the caribbean . in addition the company also owns cwc s operations in the seychelles named cable and wireless seychelles . europe edit liberty global serves 12 countries in europe 47 and is the largest cable operator in austria belgium the czech republic hungary ireland the netherlands poland slovakia switzerland and the united kingdom . citation needed references edit a b c mari silbey february 16 2016 . liberty global presses pause on 4k wifi first hopes . light reading . retrieved september 9 2016 . a b annual report 2015 pdf . liberty global . retrieved september 9 2016 . a b c d tamara chuang may 20 2016 . liberty global doesn t make money in denver but moved its headquarters here . here s why . . the denver post . retrieved september 9 2016 . a b liberty global to buy virgin media for 23.3 bn . bbc news . 6 february 2013 . retrieved 6 february 2013 . liberty global reports q2 and h1 2016 results pdf . liberty global . august 4 2016 . retrieved september 9 2016 . time richardson june 16 2005 . liberty ugc complete merger . the register . retrieved september 9 2016 . amy bryer january 18 2005 . liberty media international unitedglobal merge . denver business journal . retrieved september 9 2016 . liberty global to buy unitymedia for 5.2 billion . the new york times . november 13 2009 . retrieved september 9 2016 . jeffrey mccraken daisuke wakabayahi january 25 2010 . liberty global to sell stake in jupiter . the wall street journal . retrieved september 9 2016 . a b tartaglione nancy . 28 october 2013 amc networks to pay 1b for liberty global s chellomedia . deadline.com . accessed on 28 october 2013 . dana cimilluca lilly vitorovich anupreeta das feb 5 2013 . liberty global to acquire virgin media . the wall street journal . retrieved september 9 2016 . cs1 maint multiple names authors list link juliette garside february 6 2013 . virgin media bought for 15bn by liberty global . the guardian . retrieved september 9 2016 . mark scott eric pfanner february 5 2013 . liberty global reaches deal for virgin media . the new york times . retrieved september 9 2016 . briel robert 27 january 2014 . liberty global to acquire ziggo for 10bn . broadband tv news . retrieved 27 january 2014 . mark sweney may 8 2014 . all3media sold to discovery and liberty global in deal worth 500m . the guardian . retrieved september 9 2016 . georg szalai september 23 2014 . discovery liberty global complete acquisition of u.k. producer all3media . the hollywood reporter . retrieved september 9 2016 . anne sylvaine chassany henry mance may 8 2014 . liberty global and discover agree 550m deal for uk s all3media . financial times . retrieved september 9 2016 . clover julian 17 july 2014 . liberty global makes 481m investment in itv . broadband tv news . retrieved 17 july 2014 . liberty global increases itv stake to 9.9 % but denies takeover plan . the guardian . july 31 2015 . retrieved september 9 2016 . henry mance july 31 2015 . john malone s liberty global increased stake in itv . financial times . retrieved september 9 2016 . thomson amy 17 september 2014 . vodafone liberty global deal is way to end duel real m & a . bloomberg l.p. retrieved 8 july 2015 . oscar williams grut june 5 2015 . this could be the beginning of the end of vodafone . business insider . retrieved september 9 2016 . ben chu june 5 2015 . vodafone confirms talks with liberty global but quashes talk of merger . independent . retrieved september 9 2016 . liberty global invests in big data analytics company gauvus a step closer to iot . iot league . september 15 2015 . retrieved september 9 2016 . liberty global to acquire cable and wireless in 5.3 billion deal . bloomberg . 17 november 2015 . retrieved 17 november 2015 . ali jaafar november 17 2015 . john malone s liberty global acquires cable & wireless for 5.3 billion . deadline hollywood . missing or empty url help ; access date requires url help jennifer saba november 20 2015 . cable & wireless looks past john malone s complex deal . the new york times . retrieved september 9 2016 . shalini ramachandran november 16 2015 . liberty global to buy cable & wireless communications for 5.3 billion . the wall street journal . retrieved september 9 2016 . patrick hoyos may 17 2016 . liberty global completes acquisition of cable & wireless communications . the broad street journal . retrieved september 9 2016 . meg james ryan faughnder november 10 2015 . lionsgate sells 6.8 % stake to john malone s liberty global and discovery . los angeles times . retrieved september 9 2016 . gerry smith june 30 2016 . malone may have bigger plans beyond lions gate purchase of starz . bloomberg . retrieved september 9 2016 . michael j. de la marced november 10 2015 . liberty global and discovery communications take stakes in lions gate . the new york times . retrieved september 9 2016 . alex