If reports in the Sunday Telegraph are correct Richard Branson's Virgin group is planning to merge with cable telco NTL, but according to other industry sources NTL is going to buy Virgin.

The paper claims a merger is on the cards to merge the two companies into a telco of  2.5 million broadband Internet customers, 4.3 million fixed-line telephone accounts and more than 5 million mobile customers. Under the deal NTL will effectively acquire Virgin Mobile, but the company's name will be replaced by the Virgin brand and Branson will be the largest shareholder.

But.....Other claims are that NTL will buy Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile Holdings Plc for about £835m.

Whatever the outcome it seems that a coming together of the two companies is very likely, as it seems that both are concerned with BSkyB's entry into the telco/broadband market last month.