Liberty Media close to deal for Unitymedia -papers

FRANKFURT Nov 12 (Reuters) - John Malone's media conglomerate, Liberty Media, is close to acquiring the second-largest German cable network company, Unitymedia, according to two German media reports late on Thursday.

Both WirtschaftsWoche (WiWo) and Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) reported talks concerning a sale were advanced.

WiWo wrote that plans by Unitymedia's owners BC Partners and Apollo Management to take the company on the stock exchange via an initial public offering would likely then be shelved this week.

The FTD reported negotiations between the parties could be concluded within a matter of days, now that Malone is willing to pay eight times the amount of Unitymedia's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), including net debt of 1.5 billion euros.

Unitymedia, which expects to post an EBITDA of about 420 million euros this year, could not be reached for a comment.

(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner; Editing Bernard Orr)