
LBTYA$9.58▲ 12.4%Liberty Global insiders sold $4.7 million in 2026. Then its CEO and tech chief bought
Chief executive Mike Fries's Nov. 4 purchase was his first open-market buy of Liberty Global stock since 2018, his filings show. He and its technology chief paid about a fifth less a share than four insiders who sold earlier.
KeyVex News··5 min readFact-checked against 17 public records
KeyVex News··5 min readFact-checked against 17 public records
LBTYA$9.58▲ 12.4%Close, Nov. 4. Prices from Tiingo.The short versionTap to readTap to close
- Earlier this year, Liberty Global's insiders only sold on the open market: four of them, the finance chief among them, from March to June, at average prices of $11.46 to $12.19 a share.
- On Nov. 4, chief executive Mike Fries and technology chief Enrique Rodriguez bought instead, at about $9.42 a share. The stock had fallen 42% from its Feb. 18 high to its Oct. 19 low.
- An open-market purchase means paying the going price with your own money. Fries had not made one in Liberty Global stock since May 2018; Rodriguez, not since he began reporting there in 2018.
- None of these trades, sales or purchases, was marked as made under a trading plan set in advance. The filings give no reason for any of them.
- Next: Liberty Global intends to make its first confidential filings in December to spin off Ziggo Group, its Dutch and Belgian business, in the second quarter of 2027.
The purchases: Liberty Global chief executive Mike Fries bought 110,000 of its Class A shares on Nov. 4, at an average of about $9.37, his Form 4 shows. That is the form a company's officers and directors file when they trade its stock.Form 4 Chief technology officer Enrique Rodriguez bought 211,313 Class A shares the same day, at about $9.45, through his trust.Form 4 Together they paid about $3.0 million. Both Form 4s were filed the next morning, before the market opened.Form 4Form 4
The record: It was Fries's first open-market purchase of Liberty Global stock since May 2018, when he bought 100,000 Class A shares, his filings show.Form 4Fries filings Rodriguez had not bought Liberty Global stock on the open market since he began reporting his holdings there, in July 2018.Form 3Rodriguez filings Neither Form 4 marks the purchase as made under a trading plan set in advance.Form 4Form 4
The other trades: As of Nov. 5, theirs were the only open-market purchases any Liberty Global insider reported in 2026.Form 4s Four others, the finance chief among them, had sold about $4.7 million of stock from March to June.Form 4Form 4Form 4Form 4Form 4 On average, the buyers paid about a fifth less a share than the sellers got.Form 4Form 4Form 4Form 4Form 4Form 4Form 4
The stock: Liberty Global, which runs broadband and mobile networks in Europe, lists three classes of stock on Nasdaq.8-K Its Class A shares closed at $13.03 on Feb. 18, their 2026 high. By Oct. 19 they were at $7.50, their low, 42.4% lower.Chart data On Nov. 4 they rose 12.4% to $9.58, their biggest one-day gain since Feb. 18.Chart data The purchases became public with the next morning's filings.Form 4Form 4
Liberty Global's stock, the insider sales and the Nov. 4 purchasesDaily close, Nov. 3, 2025 to Nov. 4, 2026 ▼ 12.0%Show chartHide chart
Who sold, and who bought
Director Paul Gould made the biggest sales: 200,000 Class A and Class C shares from March 17 to 20, for about $2.4 million.Form 4Form 4 Chief accounting officer Jason Waldron sold about $309,000 on May 5.Form 4 Chief financial officer Charles Bracken sold about $1.4 million on June 11, and director J. David Wargo about $635,000 on June 16.Form 4Form 4 None of those Form 4s marks the sales as made under a trading plan.Form 4s
The company itself was a buyer. In the first nine months of 2026, Liberty Global spent $100.0 million buying back its stock, its quarterly report shows. That bought about 6.3 million Class A shares, at an average of $10.51, and about 3.3 million Class C shares, at $10.23. In October, its board authorized up to $100 million more.10-Q
View the data
| Insider | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Gould (Director · sold March 17 to 20) | $2.40M | 200,000 Class A and Class C shares, $11.49 to $12.19 |
| Charles Bracken (Chief financial officer · sold June 11) | $1.36M | 115,459 Class A and Class C shares, $11.60 to $12.03 |
| J. David Wargo (Director · sold June 16) | $0.63M | 55,000 Class A and Class C shares, $11.46 to $11.92 |
| Jason Waldron (Chief accounting officer · sold May 5) | $0.31M | 26,311 Class A and Class C shares, $11.62 to $11.91 |
| Enrique Rodriguez (Chief technology officer · bought Nov. 4) | $2.00M | 211,313 Class A shares, about $9.45 (weighted average) |
| Mike Fries (Chief executive · bought Nov. 4) | $1.03M | 110,000 Class A shares, about $9.37 (weighted average) |
The sales were of Class A and Class C shares; the purchases were of Class A shares. Source: 14 open-market transactions in seven Form 4 filings, March 19 to Nov. 5, 2026.
Both buyers already held shares. After his purchase, Fries held 1,238,525 Class A shares directly. Rodriguez's trust held 602,378, about 54% more than before.Form 4Form 4
The spin-off plan
Liberty Global reported its third-quarter results before the market opened on Nov. 3. Ziggo Group, the Dutch and Belgian business it plans to spin off, had revenue of $1.91 billion, down 1.9% from a year earlier. Its adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operating profit, fell 6.3% to $674.8 million.Q3 release
The release also updated the plan for Ziggo Group, which combines VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands and Telenet in Belgium. Liberty Global plans to list it in Amsterdam and spin it off to its own shareholders in the second quarter of 2027.Q3 release On the call, Fries said that, absent a force majeure the company can't control, the spin-off "is happening."Call excerpt Liberty Global's filings about the plan list, among its risks, the board's discretion to decide not to complete it.Call excerpt
What the analysts pressed on
Analysts asked about debt. Polo Tang of UBS asked how VodafoneZiggo would get its leverage, debt measured against a year of operating profit, to 4.5 times from 6 times. Most investors' math, he said, "can only get down to around about five times."Call excerpt Bracken answered that investors "should assume that we see a roadmap to the 4.5x," saying exact figures would wait for final budgets and synergy estimates. In his opening remarks, he said Ziggo Group expects no material debt maturities until 2029.Call excerpt
Liberty Global intends to make its first confidential filings for the spin-off with the SEC and the Dutch market regulator in December.Q3 release On the call, Fries said those filings "should provide more than enough time" for the second-quarter date.Call excerpt Liberty Global will present at Morgan Stanley's European technology, media and telecom conference in Barcelona on Nov. 18.8-K
The paper trail
Liberty Global filings cited here, Nov. 3 through Nov. 5, with the time EDGAR accepted each one.
| Filed (ET) | Form | Filer | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 3, 8:36 a.m. | 8-K | Liberty Global | Third-quarter results and the Ziggo Group spin-off update. |
| Nov. 3, 4:32 p.m. | 425 | Liberty Global | Excerpt of the Nov. 3 call, filed as a communication about the spin-off. |
| Nov. 5, 9:20 a.m. | 4 | Mike Fries | Bought 110,000 Class A shares on Nov. 4 at about $9.37. No trading plan indicated. |
| Nov. 5, 9:20 a.m. | 4 | Enrique Rodriguez | Bought 211,313 Class A shares on Nov. 4 at about $9.45, through his trust. No trading plan indicated. |
What to watch
Liberty Global presents at Morgan Stanley's European technology, media and telecom conference in Barcelona.
Liberty Global intends to make its first confidential filings for the Ziggo Group spin-off with the SEC and the Dutch regulator.
The planned spin-off of Ziggo Group to Liberty Global's shareholders and its listing in Amsterdam.
Sources
19 sources, 17 of them public records
Public records
- Michael T. Fries, Form 4 for Liberty Global Ltd. (purchase of Nov. 4, 2026)SEC EDGAR · Nov. 5, 2026
- Enrique Rodriguez, Form 4 for Liberty Global Ltd. (purchase of Nov. 4, 2026)SEC EDGAR · Nov. 5, 2026
- Michael T. Fries, Form 4 for Liberty Global plc (purchase of May 2018)SEC EDGAR · May 30, 2018
- Enrique Rodriguez, Form 3 for Liberty Global plcSEC EDGAR · July 23, 2018
- Paul A. Gould, Form 4 for Liberty Global Ltd. (sales of March 17 to 19, 2026)SEC EDGAR · March 19, 2026
- Paul A. Gould, Form 4 for Liberty Global Ltd. (sale of March 20, 2026)SEC EDGAR · March 24, 2026
- Jason Waldron, Form 4 for Liberty Global Ltd. (sales of May 5, 2026)SEC EDGAR · May 5, 2026
- Charles H.R. Bracken, Form 4 for Liberty Global Ltd. (sales of June 11, 2026)SEC EDGAR · June 12, 2026
- J. David Wargo, Form 4 for Liberty Global Ltd. (sales of June 16, 2026)SEC EDGAR · June 18, 2026
- Liberty Global Ltd., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026SEC EDGAR · Nov. 3, 2026
- Liberty Global Ltd., Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1: third-quarter 2026 resultsSEC EDGAR · Nov. 3, 2026
- Liberty Global Ltd., Rule 425 filing: excerpt of the Nov. 3, 2026 earnings call transcriptSEC EDGAR · Nov. 3, 2026
- Liberty Global Ltd., Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1: VodafoneZiggo tower sale clearance (company description)SEC EDGAR · Oct. 14, 2026
- Liberty Global Ltd., Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1: Morgan Stanley conference presentationSEC EDGAR · Oct. 28, 2026
- Michael T. Fries's ownership filings (Forms 3 and 4), all issuersSEC EDGAR · through Nov. 5, 2026
- Enrique Rodriguez's ownership filings (Forms 3 and 4), all issuersSEC EDGAR · through Nov. 5, 2026
- Liberty Global Ltd. Form 4 filings, all reporting ownersSEC EDGAR · through Nov. 5, 2026
Data
- End-of-day prices for LBTYA, and for SPY and QQQ on the chart (Tiingo)KeyVex · through Nov. 4, 2026
- The chart's Filings layer: KeyVex's Congress trade, insider trade, 8-K and lobbying records for LBTYAKeyVex · through Nov. 4, 2026
How we got these numbers
- Prices are end-of-day closes of Liberty Global's Class A shares (LBTYA) as traded, not adjusted for dividends, through the Nov. 4, 2026 close. Daily moves are close to close. The price data treats the November 2024 spin-off of Sunrise as a split and adjusts closes before Nov. 13, 2024 by a factor of 1.941. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 lines follow SPY and QQQ, rebased to Liberty Global's close at the start of the range shown. The Filings switch shows the filing markers from KeyVex's Liberty Global page, a selection of congressional trades, insider trades, 8-Ks and lobbying filings: not every filing, and not only those tied to this story. It starts off.
- Insider dollar amounts are shares times the price each Form 4 reports; the Nov. 4 purchases are reported at weighted average prices, from $8.94 to $9.46 for Fries and $9.102 to $9.525 for Rodriguez. The 2026 sales total $4,710,496 for 396,770 Class A and Class C shares, an average of about $11.87 a share; the purchases total $3,026,150 for 321,313 Class A shares, about $9.42 a share. "About a fifth less" compares those two averages, KeyVex's math (20.7%).
- "First since" claims come from each executive's full list of Form 4 filings on EDGAR. KeyVex read every Form 4 Fries filed from January 2018 through Nov. 5, 2026, and every one Rodriguez filed from 2013: the only purchases of Liberty Global stock among them are Fries's of May 2018 and the two of Nov. 4, 2026. That Liberty Global's insiders only sold on the open market earlier in 2026 comes from every Form 4 on Liberty Global's EDGAR list from Jan. 1 through Nov. 5, 2026; it counts purchases and sales on the open market (codes P and S), not grants, vesting, tax withholding or gifts.
- The third-quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA figures are Ziggo Group's, from Liberty Global's release, in U.S. dollars, with changes on a reported basis; they include 100% of VodafoneZiggo before Liberty Global bought Vodafone's half. Liberty Global's own consolidated revenue was $1,920.6 million, up 59.1% on a reported basis; it began consolidating VodafoneZiggo in July 2026.




