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Telewest, formerly Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications, was a cable Internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In March 2006, Telewest merged with fellow cable telecom company NTL, and created 'NTL:Telewest', which then also merged with Virgin Mobile and Virgin.net in June 2006, creating the United Kingdom's first "quadruple play" telecom provider, offering television, internet, landline phone and mobile phone services. In February 2007, NTL:Telewest was rebranded as Virgin Media. == History == Telewest originated in Croydon in 1984 under the name "Croydon Cable". In 1988 United Cable of Denver, US, acquired Croydon Cable. Franchises extended the company scope in Edinburgh and the south-west and south-east of England. In 1989 United Cable merged with United Artists Cable International. In May 1991, United Artists announced a merged deal with their largest shareholder TCI ( Liberty Media), to form the largest cable operator in the US, deal was valued at $142.5m, by June the deal was improved. A week later, on 8 June the deal was finalized with ITC acquiring the remaining 46% of United Artists, to allow full control. TCI and US West announced a joint venture, and in 1992 the joint venture company became Telewest Communications. In 1995 Telewest merged with SBC Communications, adding franchises in the Midlands and North West serving 1.3 million homes. During this time Telewest founded a consortium called Cable Internet. This consisted of the major cable companies in the UK working together a provide national Internet access service. In March 1998, Telewest announced a merger with General Cable,〔 〕 and acquired the outstanding interest in Birmingham Cable, adding a further 1.7 million franchise homes in Yorkshire, west London and Birmingham.〔 〕 Telewest purchased the remaining 50% stake in Cable London from NTL in August 1999, adding 0.4 million franchise homes in North London. In April 2000, Telewest merged with Flextech, and in November extended its cable network with the acquisition of Eurobell, taking the total number of homes passed to 4.9 million.〔 〕 The company later became known as "Telewest Broadband" in a re-brand during 2001.〔 In subsequent years Telewest experienced many financial problems due to huge debts incurred as a result of constructing its cable network and of acquiring other cable companies and assets. Notably the Eurobell acquisition had been funded by an equity based deal, with a cash option, the poor performance of the company's stock meant that the cash option was favourable, and the company was not able to cover the call. In September 2003, Telewest re-structured itself by swapping its unsecured debt for 98.5% of its shares. The London FTSE then de-listed the consolidated shares. Major Telewest shareholders included Huff and Liberty Media (run by cable tycoon John Malone). Afterwards the company emerged from financial restructuring and completed a merger with NTL in 2006. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Telewest」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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