Verizon & AT&T to buy and spit Vodafone?

[nsane.forums]

If the deal pans out, AT&T would get Vodafone's vast non-US holdings.

According to reports ricocheting around the financial world on Tuesday, Vodafone is being targeted by both Verizon and AT&T for acquisition.

Under the proposed deal, Verizon would acquire Vodafone’s 45 percent share in Verizon Wireless, and AT&T would get all of Vodafone’s non-American assets, which are extensive. If completed, it would value Vodafone—the world’s second-largest mobile operator—at $245 billion. (China Mobile is the world’s largest.)

Vodafone operates in many lucrative markets around the world, including India, Turkey, Egypt, and many European countries. While the company did make over $10 billion in net income (profits) in 2012, those profits have been falling since 2010.

“AT&T historically has been a relatively acute buyer,” Robin Bienenstock, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst in London, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. “If you look at what they’ve bought in US acquisitions, they’ve always bought at quite low prices.”

Vodafone’s stock price shot up around 6 percent on the London Stock Exchange as a result of the news. AT&T is up slightly on the news, as is Verizon.

The proposed move comes as MetroPCS’ voters are set to approve an acquisition by T-Mobile in the wake of last year’s investment in Sprint by Japanese telco Softbank.

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[DKT27]

No, please no. I'm happy with Vodafone, I don't want it to be ruined by money hungry companies that don't know how things work outside U.S. :beg:

[Dodel]

Vodafone have just bought cable and wireless, so you can see where they are heading their sights.