How John Malone Should Use His European Windfall

Cable tycoon is selling up in much of central Europe—the strategy won’t work everywhere

John Malone is taking chips off the table in Europe. He will need to put at least one of them back into play.

The cable billionaire’s European investment vehicle, Liberty Global, on Wednesday announced the sale of its networks in Germany and parts of Eastern Europe to mobile-phone giant Vodafone. A deal had been on the cards for years. The industry trend of “convergence” between fixed and mobile broadband operators is more advanced in Europe than in the U.S., where cost pressures have until recently been more benign.

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