Vodafone Denies US Sale Report

The UK newspaper The Independent reported over the weekend that Vodafone is considering the sale of its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless in order to raise the funds to buy a rival GSM network. The newspaper cited unnamed USA sources as suggesting the company is looking to either launch a takeover for AT&T Wireless, or buy T-Mobile's US network from Deutsche Telekom.

Vodafone has a sale option on its stake, and could force Verizon Communications to buy out its stake in two transactions this year. The newspaper said that Vodafone would raise around US$20 billion from the sale.

The claim was later denied - and Reuters reported a Vodafone spokesperson as saying "We have made it very clear that we have no present intentions of exercising that option,"

With the transition of management from Sir Chris Gent to Arun Sarin - investors are looking forward to a period of consoldation in Vodafone's operations and less of the takeovers that charactierised Gent's time in charge. However, with Sarin's background in the US telecoms market, he may be inclined to push for one big deal to give Vodafone control of a network that would fit more closely with Vodafone's primarily GSM based holdings. Verizon Wireless is a CDMA based network - the only one in Vodafone's portfolio."

Posted to the site on 6th January 2003