Seriously, who can really be surprised by this? Personally I feel that the signs were already there. To me I feel that this totally obvious.

Virgin Mobile shares slipped 2¼ to 373¾p in morning trade after a report that plans have been abandoned for a flotation when the merger with NTL is completed.

A flotation was turned down as it would lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in extra taxes for the merged company, according to City AM.

NTL, which is listed on Nasdaq, would have had to shift its domicile to the UK in order to float which would have triggered the large tax bill.

The company had been considering a dual listing as the company’s customers are in Britain.

Earlier this month NTL announced its long awaited acquisition of Virgin Mobile for £962m. The merged company is aiming to benefit from a “quadruple play” by being the first company to offer customers broadband, cable television, mobile and fixed line telephone services.

The enlarged group will have 9m customers and will use the Virgin brand. Source: Business Telegraph

[tags]uk,britain,virgin mobile,ntl,cable television[/tags]