The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Verizon says Voda 'will keep shares'

Good news for Sarin

Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner

The news that Arun Sarin will be justified in staying as CEO of Vodafone is hardly going to be a surprise to Arun himself; he probably arranged the announcement by Verizon Wireless that "cellular partner Vodafone Group PLC has opted not to sell its 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless for at least the next few years".

The Associated Press report analyses the problem as "Verizon can't afford to buy Voda out" - because the success of Verizon Wireless has boosted shares beyond the company's purse.

But financial advisers to Voda are well aware the real threat isn't that the American will buy its global partner out: it's the fact that various financiers are preparing to asset-strip the "fast growth potential" of Voda subsidiaries in territories like Africa and South America to fund the takeover of the group.

Nonetheless, UK analysts are likely to be reassured.

"Full-ownership of Verizon Wireless' profit would help fund a hugely expensive upgrade of the Verizon's traditional phone network with fiber-optic lines to deliver TV and next-generation internet services. But as the cellular business has prospered, its market value has soared, fueling worries Verizon might be forced to take on too much debt to buy the Vodafone stake, now estimated to be worth well above $40bn," Business Week said today.

But the story made it clear that this statement arose from briefings by Arun Sarin to financial analysts.

Sarin - unpopular with UK and European analysts - commands strong admiration in US markets, where a firm statement of non-intent to buy Voda out means, effectively, that Voda still has a use for Sarin's services in wowing US investors.

Copyright © Newswireless.net

Ensure Ease of Recovery with Asigra’s Agentless Software

More from The Register

Thanks, NSA: Amazon sales of Orwell's 1984 rise 9,500%
Citizens of Oceania bone up on the new reality
 breaking news
BBC lied to Parliament about doomed £100m IT monster, thunder MPs
Axed DMI ballooned and burst while watchdogs sang Kumbaya
Microsoft to open Windows Stores inside 600 Best Buy locations
Product showcases 'must be seen to be believed'
 breaking news
Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59
Misses the release of his final work
 breaking news
What did the Lehman Brothers implosion look like to a techie?
Insider tells all about the Gnab Gib at Lehmans
It's official: 'tweet' an English word – not just in the avian sense
If the Oxford English Dictionary says it is so, then it is so
 breaking news
The only Waze is Google: Ad giant tipped to gobble map app 'for $1.3bn'
Pac-Man-satnav-ish upstart in bidding war with Apple, Facebook
 breaking news
1-in-10 e-tomes 'are self-published'... most are 'rubbish' says book ed
Publishing man scoffs at go-it-alone writers, ursines still fouling in forests
 breaking news