Vodaphone mulls Verizon takeover

A snippet of industry news for you: Vodaphone is reportedly considering a takeover of Verizon Communications, worth about $160 billion. As you may know, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodaphone — which is one of the leading service providers in the UK. They are currently split 55-45 in favor of Verizon. That could change in many ways over the next month or so.

A clause spurring the deal is a put option held by Vodaphone. It’s kind of technical, but the skinny is that Vodaphone can force Verizon to increase their share in the venture, with Vodaphone taking funds from their divestment and distributing it among shareholders. The split would then reportedly be 59-41.

Last week, the news was of Vodaphone completely divesting from Verizon. Now it has turned around, though there have been no official statements made by Vodaphone. Likely, a member of the organization offhandedly remarked to a reporter that the subject had been discussed in a meeting, and it snowballed to this.

The question, really, is what does it mean for Verizon subscribers? We’re truly not sure. Would Vodaphone bring its prepaid services to the States? That would be a huge perk. Heck, maybe they could start the prepaid revolution in the US. Of course, that’s wishful thinking on our part.

So while this doesn’t have a direct consumer effect right now — beyond the stock price — it will down the road.

[The Financial Times

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