Liberty Global Buys German Cable Operator

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (TheStreet) -- Liberty Global (LBTYA Quote) said Friday it has reached an agreement to acquire Unitymedia, Germany's second-largest cable operator.

Liberty Global will acquire Unitymedia for an equity purchase price of 2.0 billion euros ($2.97 billion) from its parent, which is owned by a group of shareholders led by BC Partners and Apollo. Liberty Global also will acquire Unitymedia's net debt of 1.5 billion euros, bring the total purchase to 3.5 billion euros ($5.2 billion).

Liberty Global, which is being advised during the transaction by Goldman Sachs, first showed its intent to invest in Unitymedia when Unitymedia started exploring the possibility of selling a minority stake last year, the Financial Times reports.

The move by Liberty Global is its second attempt to enter the German cable market after its offer of 5.5 billion euros for the entire cable networks of Deutsche Telekom (DT Quote) was vetoed by federal cartel authorities in 2002, the newspaper says.