Liberty Global, Inc. said on Thursday it posted a loss of $331 million, or $1.27 per share, on the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to a profit of $322.8 million, or $1.21 per share, during the same period last year.
The international cable TV and Internet provider controlled by media mogul John Malone, however, posted a full-year 2012 net profit of $323 million, or $1.21 per share, on revenues of $10.3 billion, a 6 percent increase from 2011.
Liberty recorded a $2.73 billion fourth-quarter 2012 revenue, versus $2.4 billion in 2011 or a 13.7 percent year-over-year increase. This was a result of 465,000 subscribers additions, representing a 22 percent increase from the same quarter in 2011.
Liberty Global President and CEO Mike Fries said the company added 1.6 million subscribers in 2012, including 465,000 in fourth quarter alone, driven by its triple-play bundles, which leveraged on the company’s broadband speeds.
“Our strength in subscriber additions helped fuel rebased revenue growth of 7% in the fourth quarter to $2.7 billion, which was our best quarterly result in five years,” Fries said.
At the end of 2012, Liberty said it provided 19.8 million customers with 34.8 million services, consisting of 18.3 million video, 9.2 million broadband internet and 7.3 million telephony subscriptions. The subscribers at the end of 2012, Liberty said, is 6% higher or over 2 million than recorded at the end of 2011.
Most of Liberty’s subscriber additions came from its European operations accounting for 92% of its total additions in 2012, topped by German operation (Unitymedia KabelBW), which delivered a record 768,000 net additions in 2012.
But in TV business, Liberty lost 287,000 video subscribers in 2012, which reflected a 7% improvement compared to its video losses in 2011 and represented the company’s lowest annual video attrition in five years. Liberty ended 2012 with a digital video base of 9.1 million users, adding 920,000 digital users during the year.
Only last week, Liberty Global announced plans to acquire U.K.-based Virgin Media Inc. for about $16 billion in cash and stock. But reports say Virgin Media Inc.’s board and Chief Executive Officer Neil Berkett were sued on Friday by a shareholder over the company’s sale to Liberty Global.
Bloomberg quoted ,” shareholder Jeff Grimsley as saying Virgin Media, Britain’s second-largest pay-television provider, is being sold through an “unfair process and for unfair price” in a complaint filed yesterday in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
