The new owner of John Malone’s cable empire?

John Malone’s big plan for consolidating the cable industry might never see the light of day if one of the world’s largest mobile operators buys the company out from under him.

Bloomberg News is reporting Vodafone is exploring an acquisition of Liberty Global, Europe’s largest cable conglomerate.

Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said John Malone’s European cable empire could be a good fit for the wireless provider assuming it is for sale “for the right price.”

Liberty owns cable operators in 12 European countries including Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands. It also own a minority share of Charter Communications in the United States and controls Sirius/XM satellite radio.

Vodafone has recently been on a buying spree in Europe, mostly using the proceeds from the sale of its minority interest in Verizon Wireless. Vodafone has bought cable companies in Spain and Germany and is looking to acquire more “fixed networks” to offload mobile traffic.

Vodafone representatives denied there was any immediate interest in a deal with Liberty, but Wall Street analysts debated the prospects of a deal nonetheless. Vodafone’s operations are larger than Liberty’s in Europe, so the wireless provider has the resources to make the deal happen if it so chooses.

But Vodafone itself may be an acquisition target. Some analysts predict AT&T will make a bid to takeover the mobile operator after it completes its acquisition of DirecTV.