Vodafone May Have Bigger Fish To Fry - Or Not

from the gotta-gobble-up-the-big-players dept

Talk about surprise endings... The big story everyone's been focused on in the wireless world over the past few weeks is the battle for AT&T Wireless. Everyone's been watching what Cingular, DoCoMo and Vodafone are going to do. The latest rumor, though, is that Vodafone might have even bigger ideas in mind. Instead of just looking at the $40 billion they might spend on AT&T Wireless, they're exploring the possibility of a $150 billion hostile takeover bid of all of Verizon - not just the wireless part (of which, they already own 45%). The plan would then be to sell off the boring non-wireless part of the business and then have full control over Verizon Wireless. Om Malik thinks that this is just a ploy by Vodafone to keep Verizon quiet and willing to buy out Vodafone's 45% of Verizon Wireless without trying to jack up the price. That definitely makes the most sense. Vodafone can do a lot more in pushing their "global" vision with AT&T Wireless (which uses the same network technology as Vodafone around the world) than with Verizon Wireless.

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