US billionaire, John Malone’s communications group, Liberty Global, could soon find itself in direct competition with Irish businessman Denis O’Brien’s Digicel and Carlos Slim’s America Movil, in the Caribbean if his plans to acquire the third major operator in the region succeed.

Liberty announced yesterday it is in discussions to buy Cable & Wireless Communications, the Caribbean telecoms operator, which is listed on the London Stock Market. 

Its statement came after the markets closed last night but some investors had wind of the situation.

Cable & Wireless’s shares surged by 20% yesterday valuing the company at £3bn. It’s expected that if this deal goes through it will cost Liberty close to £3.7bn.

It took control of a broadband and Pay TV services company, Columbus Communications in the Caribbean last year in which John Malone was a shareholder, so he already holds a significant stake in the company that Liberty is trying to acquire.

Liberty Global owns Virgin Media here, which operates the recently rebranded UPC cable network in Ireland. It also recently acquired TV3.