Business
Liberty Global Reports Q3 2020 Results
Sunrise acquisition in Switzerland expected to close mid-November1 U.K. joint venture with Telefonica's O2 proceeding on track2 Best customer and broadband
About this update from Liberty Global Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"\nSunrise acquisition in Switzerland expected to close mid-November1\n\nU.K. joint venture with Telefonica's O2 proceeding on track2\n\nBest customer and broadband additions in over three years\n\nContinued success of convergence strategy; FMC penetration now 25%\n\nNew $1 billion buyback authorization announced\n\n DENVER, Colorado--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nLiberty Global plc today announced Q3 2020 financial results. Our former operations in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, along with our DTH business (collectively, the \"Discontinued Operations\") are presented as discontinued operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019. Unless otherwise indicated, the information in this release relates only to our continuing operations. Effective with our Q2 2020 financial results we stopped using the term Operating Cash Flow (\"OCF\") and replaced it with \"Adjusted EBITDA\". As we define the term, Adjusted EBITDA has the same meaning as OCF had previously, and therefore does not impact any previously reported amounts.\n\nCEO Mike Fries stated, \"As the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way we all work and live, our fiber-rich networks continue to deliver seamless connectivity that has never been more crucial. During the quarter we continued to see strong demand for our high-speed connectivity products, adding 37,000 new customer relationships and over 70,000 broadband subscribers, our best quarterly result in over three years. The combination of our market-leading broadband speeds, next-generation video platforms and attractive mobile offerings drove our performance.\n\nIn addition to solid fixed-line trends, our strategy of driving fixed-mobile convergence (\"FMC\") continues to pay off. During Q3, we added 127,000 post-paid mobile subscribers, which represents our best quarterly performance of 2020. At the end of September, our blended FMC penetration increased to 25%, including 23% at Virgin Media and UPC Switzerland. After completion of our pending mobile transactions in each of these markets, we believe both businesses can grow convergence toward the mid-40% levels over time, similar to our current FMC penetration in Belgium and the Netherlands.\n\nIn the U.K., we are making progress with regulators on our joint venture with Telefonica's O2 and continue to expect a mid-2021 completion. Our ac...