Lime then Flow, now Liberty? It’s official – Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), the company which trades here as FLOW, has been bought by John Malone’s Liberty Global Plc in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at 3.5 billion pounds (US$5.3 billion), extending the US billionaire’s European cable empire deeper into Latin America and the Caribbean with an eye for more deals in the region.

The deal represents a multiple of 10.7 times CWC’s adjusted annual earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization, after taking into consideration cost synergies, according to a statement. CWC shareholders will get a special 3 pence a share dividend at the deal’s close. The transaction is valued at 78.04 pence per CWC share, based on Friday’s closing price.

Cable & Wireless, which also owns a network in the Seychelles, received more than half of its $1.75 billion in revenue last year from Panama and the Caribbean. Malone became a shareholder last year when Cable & Wireless bought his cable TV and Internet provider Columbus International Inc. As part of that deal, Malone and the two co-founders of Columbus were given a 36 percent stake of the combined company.