'Vodafone may trump Liberty with $10-bn cash bid for Kabel'

Vodafone is discussing a bid of about $10 billion with Germany's No. 1 cable operator Kabel Deutschland and is confident its raised all-cash offer and absence of antitrust issues put it in a better position than rival Liberty Global, two sources familiar with its thinking said on Wednesday.

Liberty Global, which owns Unity Media, Germany's No. 2 cable operator, made an euro 85-a-share offer on Tuesday, two people familiar with the matter said, just days after sources said Vodafone had offered euro 81-82 a share or euro 7.2 billion ($9.6 billion) in cash.

Vodafone is now mulling an offer of about euro 85-86 a share, or at least euro 7.5 billion, a separate source close to the company told Reuters on Wednesday.