The billionaire who currently controls Liberty Global Plc, John Malone, stated that he was out of the race for Kabel Deutschland Holding AG.  Malone said that he would just lean on Southern Europe for chances. He would wait for new opportunities when the economy there started improving again.

Kabel Deutschland was Germany's biggest cable operator. Last month, Vodafone purchased the German operator. Vodafone increased its bid to Eur87 or US$114 for every share. It trumped Liberty Global's bid of Eur85 per share.

"Unfortunately the Vodafone guys have preempted us in trying to consolidate the rest of Germany," Malone, 72, stated when he was interviewed through phone yesterday. "We wish Vodafone good luck. We're hoping they'll be a good fellow traveler in the cable business."

Malone said that the options for Liberty Global were becoming limited. "We're getting to the point where in northern Europe, we're pretty much as far as we can go," Malone added. "If southern Europe sort of hits the bottom, as it were, there are things we can do further south in scale."