TELEWEST ACTION GROUP

UPDATE 1-Liberty to sell global cable stakes to Bresnan unit

(Adds details, share price)
NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Liberty Media Corp. L.N , the sweeping media empire of John Malone, said on Monday it would sell stakes in some of its international cable units to an entity controlled by Bill Bresnan, another cable pioneer.

Liberty, based in Englewood, Colorado, agreed to sell a 21 percent ownership interest in subsidiaries that own all or part of Telewest Communications TWT.L , Chorus Communications and UnitedGlobalCom UCOMA.O .

Terms of the deal with BCI International Investments were not disclosed. The acquisition is an investment for Bresnan, a BCI spokeswoman said. He does not expect to get involved with the management of any of the units, she added.

Telewest is the No. 2 cable provider in Britain, Chorus is the biggest cable operator in Ireland outside Dublin, and UnitedGlobalCom has 11.2 million cable subscribers throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America.

As a result of the deal, Liberty's indirect ownership of Telewest will decline to 20 percent from 25 percent, its stake in Chorus will decline to 39.5 percent from 50 percent and its stake in UnitedGlobalCom will decline to 75 percent from 76 percent.

Malone and Bresnan have teamed in the past to buy cable systems in Poland and Chile.

Bresnan Communications, a separate company also run by Bill Bresnan, announced plans to buy 320,000 subscribers in three states from AT&T Broadband, which has since been acquired by Comcast Corp. CMCSA.O

Liberty shares were up 13 cents, or about 1.5 percent, at $8.58 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.