Vodafone: No bid plan
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England-based Vodafone Group Plc yesterday denied a report that it was backing partner company Verizon in a bid to block the possible merger between Sprint and Nextel, which analysts expected to be announced today.
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Vodafone reports a Â£14.9bn loss - a record for a UK firm - after writing down the value of assets.
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Verizon Communications Inc. VZ.N  has no imminent plans to bid for Sprint Corp. FON.N, people  familiar with the situation said on Tuesday, lifting a  potential obstacle to Sprint's bid for Nextel Communications  Inc. NXTL.O.
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Worth waiting for summer 2009 Vodafone boss Arun Sarin could be cashing in Â£45m, in shares and options, if he can keep Vodafone on an even keel until summer 2009. Even if he jumps ship now he could sell off what he already owns for a tidy Â£10m.â¦
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Mobile telecoms giant Vodafone has shelved the sale of Arcor, its German fixed-line operation, until the end of the year at the earliest, The Times newspaper reported, without citing its sources.
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(InfoWorld) - Vodafone has begun offering new fees and features to stir demand for mobile Internet services as competition hits the company's profits from voice services. Two of the group's largest subsidiaries, Germany's Vodafone D2 GmbH and Vodafone Ltd. in the U.K., announced new mobile data offerings on Wednesday with subsidiaries in several other markets planning customized packages of their own, according to Vodafone Group spokesman Mark Street. "Pricing for these new mobile Internet services will be on a market by market basis, and it will be up to each market to decide on features," Street said. "But what I can say is that as a group, we're looking at prices that are predictable and transparent and services that offer value for their money." The move comes as Vodafone, which has been facing tough competition from low-cost mobile phone operators, seeks new revenue streams to offset falling prices from its traditional cash-cow voice service. It has also been prompted by mobile Internet services, such as T-Mobile International AG's Web n' Walk, designed for quick, easy, and competitively priced mobile phone surfing. As of July 15, Vodafone customers in Germany can subscribe to the new mobile Internet service, called "Handy 2.0," available for a flat monthly fee of â¬9.95 ($13.44) . The service uses the open-source Opera mobile phone browser, which formats content for easy viewing on small displays, according to Vodafone D2 spokeswoman Bettina Donges. "Handy 2.0 will be like a PC experience," Donges said. "You'll be able to surf all around the Net with your mobile phone, the pages will be compiled fast, and they'll be easy to read." The new flat-rate Internet offering, however, doesn't apply to VoIPÂ applications, according to Donges. Vodafone will not support mobile VoIP service until it can guarantee quality service, Street said. In addition, Vodafone has struck Internet partnerships with eBay, Google, YouTube, and MySpace.com to provide services specially tailored for mobile phones. Customers access the Internet service through the Vodafone Live mobile portal. The portal service is included in the various bundled minute packages available from the German operator. Initially, several handsets, including the Nokia N73 and N95, the Motorola V3 and V980, and the Samsung Zv60 and D900i, will support the Handy 2.0 service, but other phones will be added over time. In the U.K., Vodafone is launching a similar service that takes Web pages designed for PCs and makes them easy to read on handsets. The Vodafone Mobile Internet offerings also includes partnerships with eBay, Google, YouTube, and MySpace as well as Yahoo. Analysts see a couple of advantages to the partnerships. By collaborating with these brands, Vodafone not only gives customers a better experience of using their Internet services on their phones but will also benefit from advertising revenue opportunities, according to John Delaney, principal analyst at Ovum Ltd. One slight difference between the German and U.K. offering is the price: U.K. customers who sign up for a data pack pay Â£7.50 ($14.90 ) per month for 120MB of data, which is equivalent to four hours of viewing YouTube or up to 160 mobile Internet pages every day for a month. Other customers are charged per kilobyte, up to a Â£1 per day for 500KB, with no additional charge unless the day's usage exceeds 15MB.
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Verison and its global partner Vodafone may enter the bidding war for another mobile phone giant, Sprint, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Vodafone Group has denied a Monday report by the Financial Times that it was considering buying Verizon Communications in a huge $160 billion deal. The paper, citing unnamed sources, said the international mobile operator was contemplating such a deal but hadn't approached Verizon and wouldn't necessarily go ahead with it. But Verizon's shares were up $1 at $42.76 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Vodafone issued a statement to the London Stock Exchange to squelch the report. "Vodafone notes press speculation that it is considering a possible offer for Verizon Communications. Vodafone wishes to make it clear that it has no plans to make such an offer," the statement said. Vodafone owns 45 percent of Verizon Wireless, the rest of which is owned by incumbent wireline carrier Verizon Communications. The dual ownership could tie Verizon's hands as it goes up against rival AT&T, which now owns all of its mobile business and is moving toward "quad-play" bundles of broadband, video, wireline voice, and mobile services. The arrangement gives Vodafone a stake in a profitable U.S. mobile business but doesn't allow it to chart its own course in the market. Vodafone tried to acquire AT&T Wireless in 2004 but was outbid by Cingular. The company has expanded aggressively in other countries, including Germany, where it bought Mannesman in 2000. Buying all of Verizon would create a company valued at about $300 billion. But as part of the deal, Vodafone might spin off Verizon's wireline business in order to build an all-wireless carrier, the Financial Times said. Verizon is the second-largest U.S. carrier behind AT&T in both wired and wireless customers. It had 60.7 million wireless subscribers and 7.4 million broadband customers at the end of the first quarter. Its Fios TV fiber-to-the-home service had attracted about 348,000 households. Verizon also operates a global enterprise communications business. Vodafone, based in Newbury, U.K., had 198.6 million customers across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Â and the Asia-Pacific region at the end of last year.
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England&#39;s cricket players started their Champions Trophy match without Vodafone Group Plc&#39;s logo on their uniforms for the first time this year because the world&#39;s biggest mobile phone
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Wireless telecommunications company  Vodafone Group Plc  has been considering a $160 billion  takeover bid of Verizon Communications , the Financial  Times reported on Monday on its Alphaville site.
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Vodafone Group, the world&#39;s largest mobile-phone operator, said Tuesday it&#39;s not in talks with partner Verizon Communications to bid for Sprint Corp.
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By SIMON FLUENDY  VODAFONE will put the Google search engine on the front page of its internet-enabled handsets within weeks.   This will mean that the Vodafone Live! business model is dead, as users will no longer be led straight to Vodafone-branded content.
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Vodafone on Friday dismissed an inquiry from the Indian authorities, who are seeking about $2bn in tax from the UK company following its $10.9bn takeover of Hutchison Essar, India&#39;s fourth-largest mobile phone operator.
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Vodafone non adotterÃ  in Italia la stessa politica commerciale che ha fatto negli ultimi mesi la fortuna di 3, ovvero quella di vendere i telefoni cellulari fortemente scontati, al fine di attrarre un maggior numero di clienti.
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British-based mobile phone giant Vodafone Group said Tuesday that it was not in talks with US partner Verizon Communications about a possible bid for US rival Sprint.
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Is there anybody out there? A network glitch left Vodafone UK customers travelling abroad without data and voice connectivity this morning.â¦
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UK mobile messaging firm 'ceases trading'