Vodafone To Ditch Verizon
Now that Vodafone has lost the battle for France, the new rumor is that they want a piece of the US market. The speculation started when Vodafone named American Arun Sarin as Chris Gent’s heir. But now UK newspaper the Independent is reporting that Vodafone is actively looking to sell off its share in Verizon Wireless to buy into T-Mobile USA or AT&T, both of which have GSM networks. As expected Vodafone is not commenting. Such a deal would be extremely complex and take quite a while to put together since both AT&T and T-Mobile consider Vodafone a global competitor. T-Mobile especially seems like a long shot given the fact that they compete with Vodafine head-on in several European markets. Likewise, AT&T wireless is partly owned by NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone’s number one competitor in Japan. At this point it’s all rumor and speculation. We’ll believe it when we see it. Update:Vodafone has issued a statement saying they have no intention of selling their stake in Verizon.
