Liberty to retain Virgin Media brand John Malone's Liberty Global committed to keeping the Virgin Media brand in the UK as it confirmed an agreed $23.3bn cash and stock bid for the UK cable operator. But Mike Fries, chief executive of Liberty Global, dismissed speculation that the cable group would look to buy ITV, the UK commercial broadcaster, following the acquisition. "We have not thought about that at all," he said in a conference call with journalists. I do not anticipate any meaningful M&A activity in the UK market for some time. The company revealed that it planned to make $3.5bn of share buybacks over two years following closure of the deal, which is subject to shareholder approval within 90 days. The deal will create the largest broadband communications company in Europe with 25m customers across 14 countries. Liberty Global said it plans to save $180m from the two companies" combined annual operational and capital expenditure budgets from procurement, IT and network synergies. Mr Fries played down expectations of a bidding war against BSkyB, the UK satellite broadcaster, for prized content such as live football rights, saying that the cable operator would not bid for premium content. "I do not see us doing anything in this market that's meaningfully different from what Virgin's been doing with respect to premium content," he said, adding that he remained committed to Virgin Media's connected TV service, TiVo. Instead he signalled that the company would continue Virgin's strategy of investing in faster high-speed broadband networks but without installing more cable in pavements to expand its network reach beyond its 13m homes. Neil Berkett, chief executive of Virgin Media, said, however, that Virgin Media was "exploring other ways in which we can take our digital services outside our network." Mr Berkett said he would leave the company following completion of the acquisition but would continue to act as an adviser. A replacement for Mr Berkett had yet to be found, Mr Fries said. The deal throws Mr Malone into direct competition with Rupert Murdoch, a longtime rival and sometimes ally, whose News Corp controls British Sky Broadcasting, the largest UK pay-TV operator. Analysts said the move could increase the competitive pressure on Sky but could be more threatening to smaller rivals such as BT and TalkTalk.