Friday, January 27, 2006

Verizon to buy Vodafone out of Verizon Wireless

Verizon's CEO announced on a conference call that he would love to take full control of Verizon Wireless and buy Vodafone (their JV partner) out. It's not too surprising given Verizon's latest set of results.

Vodafone on the other hand has stated for a while that they would rather have full control of a US mobile carrier than continue the partnership with Verizon. The problem is that there aren't really any sizeable US operators for Vodafone to buy.

They could take a punt and buy the US' 5th largest operator Crown Castle, but they'd have to spend a huge amount of money to make them a leading US carrier with clout (and brand). So that leaves a major Mannesman style deal merging with SprintNextel and selling off their fixed line assets.

I'm just not sure that Arun Sarin has the stature to pull this off with Vodafone investors (even the lofty Gent might have struggled with this one). So that leaves Vodafone facing the depressing reality that they may have to take a Verizon offer and retreat from the US market. Ouch.

The current global leader of the mobile phone market would suddenly look a whole load less 'global'.

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